MTC to Stage I CALL MY BROTHERS

A tale of love, fantasy and reality, the brave and thought-provoking I Call My Brothers by Jonas Hassen Khemiri, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles, recreates 24 intense hours in the mind of a young Arab man following a terrorist attack in a bustling city. Directed by Nadja Kostich, this acclaimed Swedish play for young adult audiences will have its Australian premiere on Thursday 16 April 2015 at Southbank Theatre, The Lawler, before touring to regional Victorian secondary schools, Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Launceston College in Tasmania.

Director Nadja Kostich said, 'I Call My Brothers is a masterful, non-naturalistic piece written in response to a notorious public racial profiling campaign, following a suicide bombing in Stockholm. Transporting us through place and time, this play is suspenseful, funny and poetic. It's an important study on the impact of racial assumptions and prejudices, and is powerful theatre for all audiences, including young people studying theatre.'

In the city a bomb explodes. The shock waves spread out until everyone is on edge, waiting for the next explosion. Through this wary city Amor walks. All he has to do is act normally. But today, nothing is normal.

MTC Connect and Women Directors Program alumni Nadja Kostich's largescale and intimate works have been shown at Melbourne Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, numerous theatres, and iconic spaces such as Federation Square and Flinders St Station, and toured nationally. She has directed plays by writers such as Christos Tsiolkas, Patricia Cornelius, Angus Cerini and Mari Lourey and conceives new projects for her company, Small Revolutions. Trained at the VCA, Nadja received a Green Room nomination for Outstanding Direction for her debut production, InsideOut.

Jonas Hassen Khemiri is an award-winning Swedish novelist and playwright. His first novel One Eye Red received the Borås Tidning award for Best Literary Debut and his second novel, Montecore, won several literary awards including the Swedish Radio Award for Best Novel of the Year. Khemiri's work has been translated into more than fifteen languages and his plays have been performed by over 40 international companies. In 2011 his play Invasion! premiered in New York and Khemiri was awarded a Village Voice Obie Award for playwriting. I Call My Brothers was written for the project Europe Now and was published in Dagens Nyheter in December 2010, one week after the suicide bombing in Stockholm.

Following its season in the Lawler at Southbank Theatre, I Call My Brothers will tour schools throughout regional Victoria from 4 - 15 May 2015, in association with Regional Arts Victoria and as part of MTC's Sharing The Light initiative with Crown Resorts Foundation. It will then travel to Geelong Performing Arts Centre on 18 May and to Launceston College, Tasmania on 20 May. This tour follows the success of MTC's first ever in-schools regional tour of Yellow Moon in 2014.

I Call My Brothers is an MTC Education production and is on the 2015 VCE Drama Playlist for Unit 3.

Contains strong language and themes of violence. Suitable for ages 15+.

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