The Hero’s Journey: A reflection
Deanne Naula reflects on her experience with The Hero’s Journey, an immersive site-specific performance by Anna Maria Nabirye and Darragh O'Leary, commissioned for Knotty Festival 2025.
Produced by Afri-Co-Lab and featuring a large community cast, the event took place in the grounds of Hastings Museum and Art Gallery in June 2024.
A journey of recovering a community
For me, as the resident Afri-Co-Lab creative wrangler, the Hero’s Journey was an incredible production to be part of. I watched with admiration as this piece grew, plunging roots in many communities and reaching out to explore multiple creative possibilities.
The Process
Inspired by a previous community ensemble piece in 2021, this iteration began in late 2023 by reaching out to local marginalised communities that Afri-Co-Lab hadn’t worked with before and exploring creative performance skills together to encourage them to take part.
In January 2024, the project launched its call out for volunteers with only a title and excitement - The Hero’s Journey. With over 47 responses to the call out, the first gathering of volunteers was bustling. Anna-Maria and Darragh facilitated introductory exercises, explained what their vision was and how they wanted to work together.
Using anti-racist practices of collective care and harm reduction, they sought to make something different. Something that was inclusive and open, led with humanity and community spirit, both in the process and the show.
The Story
As the story began to take shape in the rehearsal room, so did the different elements of the company. The team of creative volunteers came together in April to start visualising the set and costumes guided by renowned set designer Hattie Spice and Afri-Co-Lab’s Lilly Babirye.
Our team of theatre professionals, mainly based across East Sussex, provided a strong scaffold for the production. Working tirelessly to turn creative dreams into reality, they were very much interwoven into the fabric of this eclectic community.
The show guides joined the company in May, providing the crucial role of guiding audiences into this new imagined world and holding them as they journeyed through it.
As the story developed we watched the trust and confidence grew in not only in each member of the company but also in each other. This transformed into something iridescent once the audiences joined us. Then we were complete.
"It made me feel calm, safe and connected. I felt heard, I felt cared for, I felt respected. Community, community, community is the word that keeps coming to mind! Thank You so much for this opportunity." - Company Member
The Show
Over 4 consecutive shows, 300 community audiences from across East Sussex to London experienced this audio and visual performance.
Through headphones, voices of the future transported the audience to the year 2124. Having survived climate disasters and capitalism, the world had changed. Some places were lost, and some ways of life would not return, but many pulled through.
One of the surviving towns was Hastings, an equitable, joy-filled town where everyone has what they need to thrive and be happy.
Set in a future Hastings Museum, we took a tour back to 2024 and through scenes of simple yet pivotal moments, visited the ancestors who set the ball in motion to this new future.
"What a wonderful inspirational idea for a play. We need more of this." - Audience Member
And that collaboration is the essence of this project, process and performance. Every person involved as a funder, organisation, community or professional company member and audience had an essential part to play in this journey together.
Like all good adventures we didn’t know where we would end up or who would be the hero or heroes. But what we do know is that it takes a village and we have made some amazing friends along the way!
Credits
The Company
Ade Thomas, Adeline Collingwoode, Alice Dindar, Andrew Wilkins, Anna Maria Nabirye, Anne-Marie Watson, Beth O'Leary, Chiara Capraro, Chris Williams, Claudia Burnett, Daniel Carter Hope, Darragh O'Leary, Deanne Naula, Denise Mathews, Dorcas Magbadelo, Hannah Fox, Hattie Spice, Helen Skiera, Henry Robertson, Iryna Kryvosheina, Jess Mabel Jones, Juliet Davies, Karen Arthur, Katie Taylor, Katy Baird, Katie Taylor, Kay Johnson, Khadija Khan, Kim Batty, Kirsty Grennan, Laura Dunton Clarke, Lauren Bishop Vranch, Lauren Ding, Lilly Babirye, Natascha Banziger, Olivia Long, Patrick Kealey, Pip Beattie, Sarah Green, Saskia Gall, Serge Nicholson, Sherry Coenen, Shreyans Iyer, Ted Barrow, Theresa Adjorlolo, Vladyslava Karavan
Produced by Afri-Co-Lab
Commissioned by Home Live Art for the Knotty Festival 2024
Funded by Arts Council England, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery & Necessity
Images above taken by Holy Revell.