Actress, playwright and dub poet d’bi.young and director Weyni Mengesha bring the award winning production of blood.claat to Theatre Passe Muraille, from August 26 to September 10, 2006. While telling the story of Mudgu’s coming of age in Kingston, Jamaica, the play addresses social issues concerning women, relationships, family, self-knowledge, self-esteem and courage.

eye weekly describes blood.claat as “a meditation on the many contexts and connotations of blood – menstruation, murder, sacrifice, ancestry, salvation, childbirth.” The play is the story of ‘womban’ and blood, as experienced through the eyes of fifteen year old Mudgu Sankofa. Mudgu is surrounded by a legacy of personalities, from Granny to Auntie, Njoni to Stamma, and Ogun to Pearl Johnson, who all relate to blood on their own terms.

Mudgu comes to terms with gender, class, race and sexuality through her developing relationship with her own blood. The inevitable nature of cycles simultaneously represents the resistance to colonial oppression, a ceremonial dance, a liberashun chant and a dub poem. This piece is the first play in the three faces of the Mudgu trilogy.

blood.claat was first presented in New York City at the NYC Hip Hop Festival 2004, curated by political storyteller Danny Hoch and artist-activist Kamilah Forbes.

d’bi.young won outstanding performance for blood.claat in the Summerworks Theatre Festival 2005 and the play was chosen as one of Canada’s cultural representatives at this year’s International AIDS Conference.

The production was nominated at the Dora Awards in five categories: outstanding new play, female performance, direction, design and production. It won in two categories, for outstanding new play and female performance. Currently, it is a part of the third Afro-Canadian Playwrights’ Festival.

Born and raised in Jamaica, playwright, actress and dub poet d’bi.young moved to Canada in 1993. Her appearance in trey anthony’s da kink in my hair, garnered her a Dora nomination for best female performance. She also starred in the television sitcom Lord Have Mercy, which aired on Leda Serene/Vision TV. young has written five plays, including Selphine Loathing; Yagayah, co-written with Naila Belvett; A Working Womban's Story and Androgyne. Her first book of poetry, art on black, was published last March, by Women’s Press. In addition, blood.claat will be published as book on August 14, 2006 at Lula Lounge.

Director Weyni Mengesha is an Ethiopian-Canadian director/dramaturge and composer. She was the assistant director on Djanet Sears’ Mirvish Production of Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God and the thirteen part television series Lord have Mercy. Recently, she directed and composed the music for da kink in my hair. Mengesha has been nominated for a Dora Award, and she received a Harold Award and a national Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts.