Shrapnel by Natalie Gamsu

And this show was born.

Growing up in Namibia in the 60s, Natalie was as far away from being a flamenco dancer as one could possibly get… in a country that was colonised by the British, the Germans and the South African government.

She grew up under the apartheid regime, went to boarding school in Cape Town, performed in underground nightclubs during State of Emergencies, and searched for a way to make sense of a country that made no sense to her at all.

In Shrapnel, Natalie searches for meaning through diabolically funny stories of tsuris – the Yiddish word for pain. From eating her mother’s blood by mistake, psilocybin spiritual journeys into the past, and of course, her shapeshifting days suffering from temporal lobe epilepsy. From stories of meerkats and tortoises without their shells, and customer service arguments over tinned fruit, Shrapnel has it all.

An autobiographical theatrical work, Shrapnel is an evening of storytelling, music, and yearning to find the flamenco dancer inside.

Writer and performer: Natalie Gamsu 
Director: Stephen Nicolazzo 
Co-creator and dramaturg: Ash Flanders

Presented by Australian Musical Theatre Festival