The world premiere of playwright and director Ngozi Anyanwu'sThe Monsters runs at Two River Theater through November 23 at The Marion Huber Theater.
In the play, LIL (portrayed by Aigner Mizzelle) has been obsessed with fighting and one fighter in particular, her older brother Big (portrayed by Okieriete Onadowan of Hamilton fame), an aging but successful Mixed Martial Arts fighter. The Monsters is a sibling love story inspired by Ngozi Anyanwu's older brother who was an MMA fighter.
WBGO's Doug Doyle spoke with Anyanwu about her new play.
"This is very much a love letter to my big brother Azzuna Anyanwu who was won in the local New Jersey-Philadelphia market. The fighters that he hung around with had such big hearts. I think a lot people have a misconception about fighters, they're strong-bodied and hit people for a living, but I was very moved by how he found camaraderie in it and how really heart-forward they were."
What does the title of the play mean?
"For me, growing up with my brother, he was always called a beast because he's a big guy. There's such an interesting misconception with that. You see a big guy and you either want to climb him or fight him. For me, The Monsters is really a play on the title because I think so many men, black men especially, are looked at that way. So this play is really looking at the tenderness actually and so we can get past the title and how that's a mask, that's a facade and kind of all we see. You are going to see this really fierce and relentless play but it's actually a play on the word 'monster'. A monster has to protect itself but actually there's a big heart under there."
The Monsters is also Ngozi Anyanwu's directorial debut. What does she want people to think about as they leave the theater?
"I want them to call their sibling, call their family member. I want them to think about repairing relationships and that's it's never too late to do so. I want them to sort of expand their hearts."
You can SEE Doug Doyle's entire interview with Ngozi Anyanwu below:
