Award winning performers bring stirling’s untold black historY to life

In 2019, Scene Stirling partners began a series of conversations about untold stories. Engaging artists in conversations about disability, class and diversity and lending our support to a range of new projects that are more reflective of our inclusive aspirations. Amongst these is OMOS, a new project that explores Black history in Scotland.

OMOS demonstrates a growing body of ambitious work developing in the city and region that will excite and ignite conversations. Stirling is currently bidding to become UK City of Culture 2025, building on the cultural aspirations of the city and area, with a key focus on equality and diversity.

Image from OMOS by Washington Gwande.

Stirling is set to feature in a new digital performance project premiering this spring.

OMOS is a striking creative journey across Scotland from Puck’s Glen to Stirling Castle, inhabited by award-winning performers who shine a light on Scotland’s untold Black history.

The new art and moving image project explores Scotland’s untold Black history and a forgotten connection to Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Created collaboratively by a group of award-winning Black performers, OMOS shines a light on Black and Black LGBTQ excellence in Scottish performance, and will be exhibited at Dunoon Burgh Hall in Spring 2022 followed by touring to venues including The Royal Scottish Academy of Art & Architecture (RSA) in Autumn 2022. There will also be an associated workshop programme which will reach Stirling residents.

Cabaret performer Rhys Hollis (also known as Rhys’s Pieces) leads an outstanding group of collaborators in the moving image work OMOS, which includes opera singer Andrea Baker, dancer Divine Tasinda and pole artist Kheanna Walker.

Each artist brings their unique skills and perspective to the creation of a work that both draws from the past and looks to the future. Filmed on location at two sites of historical significance, Puck’s Glen, Dunoon (named for Shakespeare’s mischievous fairy) and Stirling Castle, OMOS shows each artist occupying space in homage to an often forgotten history:

In 1594, a performance was given to King James VI of Scotland and his family at Stirling Castle. The original plan was for a lion to pull a chariot through the Great Hall. However, organisers were concerned that the lion would frighten guests and it was removed. Just one year later, and possibly inspired by this event, William Shakespeare included a joke about royals being scared by a performance featuring a lion in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

However, there is an often untold Black history at the heart of this. When the lion was removed from Stirling Castle, an unnamed Black man pulled the chariot instead; one of a number of Black people who featured in performances at the Scottish court. The name OMOS originally was an acronym for a phrase from A Midsummer Night’s Dream but has now become more ambiguous as solely ‘OMOS’.

With performance styles ranging from the gritty alternative drag art scene to powerful mezzo soprano singing, OMOS is a proud and bold celebration of the Black experience.

Rhys Hollis, Andrea Baker, Divine Tasinda and Kheanna Walker journey through the magical surroundings of Puck’s Glen, performing amongst waterfalls and a stunning forest, until arriving at the Great Hall of Stirling Castle.

In homage to the unnamed Black person who replaced the lion in 1594, they take up space and reclaim that history. Throughout the moving image artwork, they perform their own work in Puck’s Glen and Stirling Castle, and instead of replicating the past, they make their own choices. Black British performers are celebrated, as they shine a light upon history.

Image from OMOS by Washington Gwande

Rhys Hollis, lead artist on the project said, “OMOS explores the history of Black people in Scotland. I hope it widens understanding of Black people’s role in informing performance history in the UK. The event where a Black person replaced a lion highlights the derogatory treatment of Black bodies historically. This is paralleled in the way in which Black actors are often cast in the theatre and the media today, presented as bestial or just through tokenism. I see this project as a form of taking back power by highlighting the Black excellence of performers in Scotland. The performers take up space on their own terms, celebrating the lineage of Black people in the UK, and our brilliance and creativity.”

Creative Scotland’s Head of Theatre, Laura Mackenzie-Stuart commented: “Projects that tell Black, Scotland-based stories are still too much a rarity. OMOS combines the opportunity to reveal aspects of this history and to shine a light on a little known Scottish connection with one of Shakespeare's best known plays. Thanks to National Lottery funding, Creative Scotland is able to support the production and the accompanying programme of workshops and talks enabling further exploration of the artists’ work, themes and heritage alive within the play.”

Caroline Clark, Director for Scotland, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “It is great to see these intriguing historic sites being brought to life and used in these performances. Empowering a wider range of people to engage with heritage is a key priority for The National Lottery Heritage Fund and, thanks to National Lottery players, we are delighted to be able to support creative heritage projects like this one, with inclusion at its heart.”

For further details please visit www.pollyanna.org.uk or follow the their social media platforms:

Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: @pollyannalive

OMOS instagram: @omos.project  

Image from OMOS by Washington Gwande