SUN MAR 2 12:00PM

In-Development Open Session: JOURNEY OF THE TRUE SELF by R. Johns (she/her) and Aliya Aboo (she/her)

“I will not be scared of anyone ever again”

Maybe you won’t be either if you see this play.

Journey of the True Self is a snapshot of Aliya Aboo’s life, a fever driven odyssey, based on her lived experience as a person of colour, a Muslim, a migrant, transitioning both gender and culture and geography, from Karachi to Melbourne. Her voice is one not commonly heard. This play is fantastical, violent, incredible, yet true. The audience is taken on a rollercoaster ride of a heroine’s journey into an internal poetic landscape. How Aliya sees the world in her mind as she goes through transformation as a woman trapped in the wrong body, contrasted with the mundane, often brutal day to day, transactions she experiences.

The cast of actors are culturally and linguistically diverse, Anita Torrance (Caprica) ,Majid Shokor (Ali’s wedding, House of Gods) Raj Moodley (Is It Because I’m Indian) and Sepideh Karimi ( The Golden Rooster) .Co-writer is AWGIE nominated R. Johns. Once work colleagues at the NGV, Aliya and Rosemary came together to write this play over many emotional and turbulent years as secrets, dreams and once hidden histories revealed themselves.

Co-Writer, Director & 'Friend': R. JOHNS (she/her)
Co-Writer & 'Onlooker/Singer': ALIYA ABOO (she/her)
Actors: EVANGELOS ARABATZIS (he/him), SEPIDEH KARIMI (she/her), RAJENDRA MOODLEY (he/him), MAJID SHOKOR (he/him) and ANITA TORRANCE (she/her)

May include discussions of: Animal cruelty or animal death, Death or dying, Graphic descriptions of bodily fluids (eg blood, vomit, or birth), Mental illness, Physical Abuse, Violence, Sexism and misogyny, Suicide, Self-harm, Ideation, War, Genocide, Riots, Military Violence, Massacres

Approximate Running Time: 60 minutes with no interval

Part of Antipodes’ inaugural Summer Lab, providing ongoing development support to previous Winter Lab projects (Antipodes’ flagship development program, established in 2020). Each of the seven Summer Lab projects will culminate in either a one-night-only performance, a staged reading or in-development ‘sneak peek’ open session as part of Festival of the Unseen.

Journey of the True Self

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