The Golden Stool, or the story of Nana Yaa Asantewaa

Interweaving singing, dance, and cutting-edge theatre, Gorges Ocloo’s ground-breaking AfrOpera re-examines Nana Yaa Asantewaa’s defiant stance against colonialism and cultural appropriation.

Bizet and Handel go head-to-head with Aretha Franklin and Lady Gaga as Ocloo deconstructs (and reconstructs) western music while drilling into the legacy of Asantewaa and her all-female brigade – specially formed to thwart British designs on a revered symbol of Asante identity: the Golden Stool. Underpinned by a score enlisting a percussion machine and boomwhackers, a 10-strong female cast creates a mesmerising piece of music theatre.

‘Mixing Western opera traditions with African percussion and beats? For that you need a delightfully unorthodox composer like Gorges Ocloo. Musically he treads unseen paths’. (De Standaard). When he won the Flemish Cultuurprijs Ultima in 2022, the jury commented ‘The fearlessness with which Ocloo takes on different disciplines and roles is immensely refreshing. A show of his never leaves you untouched’.

This performance will end at approximately 9:15pm. Please note there will be no interval.

Produced by the Barbican

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‘Mixing western opera repertoire with African percussion and beats? For that, you need a delightfully unorthodox composer like Gorges Ocloo. Musically, he treads unseen paths in The Golden Stool.‘

De Standaard