How to Spell Love

Earlier this year, when I saw Anisa Nandaula perform her short piece as part of La Boite’s The Neighbourhood, a collaboration of diverse Brisbane stories, the feeling was positive, the vibe upbeat. The lockdown cast a cloud over that optimism. However, Brisbane Festival 2020 has reinvigorated the landscape, and the new Metro Arts venue is a little lighthouse of diversity and hope – showcasing a precious collection of ‘boldly Brisbane’ artists – from its colourful sculptures by Hiromi Tango, to its collision of comedy, cabaret, spoken word, dance, and music as collaborators in BrisFest2020.

But a lighthouse also functions as a watchtower, and part of this shake-up mix of presentations is Anisa Nandaula’s How to Spell Love, her spoken-word piece, previously showcased at Brisbane’s Judith Wright Centre. With a live drummer on stage and her recurring ‘words are currency’, Anisa’s performance is part beat poetry, part poetry slam, part movement piece, aided and abetted by some nifty projected words. Her opening crossword puzzle theme is perfect – after all, ‘cross’ can also mean ‘angry’. And, while I find it unfathomable that someone with so much beauty, energy and talent should have to address other people’s perceptions due to skin colour, this is a very personal piece – and Anisa explores her thoughts on her place in society and politics through her own experiences. At the heart of it all, Anisa gets to grips with her world through words. Helping her in this show is dancer, Pru Wilson, and percussionist/composer, Benjamin Shannon.

The New Benner Theatre at Metro Arts is a comfortable and cool space – and Anisa and her two performing partners use the space to reinforce the poetry’s rhythms and rhymes by using jazzy improv drum beats, small light-filled blocks, movement, and projected words, underlining the themes and adding energy to the stage.

I loved the opening piece where the small blocks were moved around like a word puzzle game and (to me) Pru moved like typewriter keys, spelling out Anisa’s alliteration. As well as heartbreakingly succinct insights into strained romance (“you still wear the smile you borrowed from my face”) and repeated phrases (“my number’s still the same”) there is a strong streak of resilience – to rejection, ignorance and society-shifted guilt (her shame at not challenging a teacher over a class about the benefits of Australia’s colonisation) – and I loved the strength of some of her statements: “My heart is like a waiter who refuses to stop taking orders!” And, at the end of it all, her strongest four-letter word is LOVE.

Because of its simplicity, How to Spell Love is one of the best examples of personal storytelling using multi mediums. It makes you think – we all have our own unique perspective on being an Australian: how would you present your story in music, movement and poetry? Anisa also runs educational workshops and is co-founder of Voices of Colour, an arts collective for migrant, refugee and First Nations artists. Her show’s format is no doubt a valuable structure in the exploration of identity and performance.

I can’t wait to revisit Anisa’s story at regular intervals as she moves through the next phases of her life… and translates them to the stage in her inimitable style.

Beth Keehn

Photos: Creative Futures Photography