Between good & evil

Tell us about your character. What drives them?

I play the character of She. She is driven by a lifetime that she didn’t get to live. She’s driven by all of the things that she imagines her life would have been, but that she didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy – motherhood, her own identity, her own self. She’s driving for the ability to have that life or to at least have vindication for that life lost.

Cessalee Stovall in rehearsals for Is God Is. Photo: Joshua Scott

What has been the experience of working with the Is God Is cast?

What’s so exciting about this show and this company is we have a group of human beings who all live at a varying intersections of Black identity. Whether they are African American and Australian, like I am, whether they are from Africa, whether they’re from Australia – our shared experience is in what society sees as a Black identity. But all of us live and experience our version of Blackness in different ways, both in our bodies and the spaces we occupy.

And so what’s been beautiful about this company is that we get the opportunity to tell this story using our identity as a baseline that connects us. But also by discovering what actually makes us all different, and what makes these characters different, and what makes their needs and their stories and wants different. So it’s been a really beautiful place to have a connected understanding, while also being able to explore such different experiences of Black life than what we probably live in ourselves.

What resonates most for you within the show?

There is no one that is all the way good or all the way bad. Even in the questions around manipulation, or someone seeming to be so bad, you still understand their perspective and their story. So it’s fascinating to get to play with what happens in between the binaries.

What I really hope people take away from this show is the idea that no thing and no person is all the way good or all the way bad. And no decision is all the way right or all the way wrong. And maybe it will allow us to have a little bit of grace when we’re looking or engaging with other people and seeing them do things that we don’t understand. What’s the part of their story that I actually don’t know?

Henrietta Enyonam Amevor, Cessalee Stovall and Masego Pitso in Is God Is. Photo: Pia Johnson

What’s unique about this production?

I think what’s different – and exciting – about this show is that you really, hopefully, don’t know what’s going on until you get to the end of it. And by the end you’re like, ‘Woah, I need to compartmentalise all of what I just saw.’ It comes at you quite fast. It’s confronting and it doesn’t give you time to figure out what you think about something. You are just forced to watch and engage and listen and take in.

The play shifts from dramatic, darker moments to lighter, comic moments quickly throughout. How do you approach acting during these quick transitions?

I think the key for She is to use the lighter moments to her advantage – she’s always keeping people on their toes, so it works well for her. I think it works well in the play because it’s such a mirror to life – there is joy in pain, silly in sadness. It furthers the idea that there are no true absolutes.

Lighting Designer Jenny Hector, Kevin Copeland, Patrick Williams and Cessalee Stovall in rehearsals for Is God Is. Photo: Joshua Scott

How does your work as an Intimacy Director and Coordinator, Cultural Consultant and Equity and Inclusion Specialist influence your creative practice and your work in Is God Is?

First of all, it’s been great to be able to work with some intimacy and DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) colleagues who do similar work. We’re so lucky to have a knowledge exchange with them! For me personally, a lot of my work includes the need for conscious and transparent communication and open discussions about identity and belonging. I think (I hope) having that background and over 25 years of experience in the arts has helped me forge practices that includes supporting everyone on their right to a safe rehearsal space.