≈ 75 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: February 6, 2024
Creator's Note
Do you like Hip Hop?
“I don’t like the misogyny,” “I like it when I’m drunk,” “Do they have to swear so much?”
Legitimate.
And.
I love Hip Hop.
Jamming on a middle school dancefloor to the Rascalz. Alone. Writing greeting cards like I'm Slick Rick. In rhyme. Running around Parkdale listening to Buy U A Drank. Shawty snappin’, of course.
Hip Hop is thumping when I’m kissing my first girlfriend. She likes punk. It’s spinning in my Walkman when we visit my Granddad in the hospital. I press pause. It’s playing when I compose a eulogy for my cousin Sheldon. I write it in rhyme. It feels better this way.
In 2010, within the same two years, I lost the oldest black man I know, my grandad, and the youngest black man in my family, my cousin Sheldon. Brotherhood came out of that time.
It’s for them.
And you.
If you like Hip Hop or not.
Among many, special thanks to Adam Lazarus, Karin Randoja, and Jacynthe Lalonde.
Program Notes
After twin rap stars CashMoney & MoneyPussy get into a car accident that kills one of the siblings, this unique one-man production follows the other as he grapples with his new identity and life outside of a close-knit duo. Set in the modern era, the show takes audiences back to Hip-Hop's earliest days in the 1970s, weaving the roots of the music and culture the brothers both loved with satire and tragedy-fuelled introspection.
Expanding on his initial 15-minute version first performed while he attended the National Theatre School of Canada, creator and actor Sébastien Heins uses Hip Hop, R&B, soul, funk, and gospel to tell a story of loss, identity, and brotherly love with cleverly-crafted lyrics and humour.
The 70-minute show was presented by b Current across Canada at the High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, Chinook Festival in Edmonton, Ottawa Undercurrents, and more, internationally to Mumbai and Bangalore, India, and New York City’s United Solo Festival where it won the Best Emerging Artist Award.
Artists
Heins has spent three seasons as a performer at the Stratford Festival, and played leading roles for Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, and Theatre Passe Muraille. His first award-winning solo show Brotherhood: The Hip-Hopera has toured festivals around the world, from New York City to Mumbai.
Most recently, he is the creator and performer of No Save Points, the hit groundbreaking interactive memoir which allows audiences to use a hacked Gameboy controlling his body to play live-action games depicting his family’s struggle with Huntington’s Disease.
Heins is the Associate Artistic Director and a founding member of Outside the March, one of Canada’s leading immersive theatre companies. Since 2010, OtM has premiered more than two dozen landmark and innovative productions including No Save Points, Trojan Girls, Lessons in Temperament, The Tape Escape, Dr. Silver, TomorrowLoveTM and the international pandemic phenomenon The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries.
Nina Lee Aquino is a renowned Filipino Canadian director, dramaturg, artistic leader, teacher, and mentor. She previously served as Artistic Director at Cahoots Theatre (2009–2012) and Factory Theatre (2012–2022). Currently, Nina is the Artistic Director of the National Arts Centre English Theatre. She edited the country’s first two-volume Asian Canadian play anthology and co-edited the award-winning inaugural book on Asian Canadian theatre. In addition, she holds an adjunct professorship at York University's Theatre Department and serves on the board of directors for the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres. Her numerous accolades include the Canada Council for the Arts’ John Hirsch Prize for Directing, the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Director, the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award, and three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Direction.
Michelle Ramsay is an award-winning lighting designer for dance, theatre and opera. Previous designs include: Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall (Tarragon Theatre); Women of the Fur Trade (Stratford Festival); Bed and Breakfast (Capitol Theatre); Prison Dancer (Citadel Theatre/National Arts Centre); Beautiful (Arts Club); Redbone Coonhound (Tarragon Theatre/Imago Theatre); Martyr (ARC); The First Stone (New Harlem); The Doctors Dilemma (Shaw Festival); The Tempest (Theatre Rusticle).
Michelle has received eight Dora Awards, a SATAward, the 2008 Pauline McGibbon Award, and was a finalist for the 2021 Siminovitch Prize. She is on the Board of the Associated Designers of Canada.
Richard Lee is an award winning theatre artist and film maker. His work has garnered him multiple Dora Mavor Moore nominations out of which he has received three. His play Monday Nights (an interactive and immersive basketball show), has recently toured to PuSH International Performing Arts Festival, after a successful run at Toronto’s Luminato Festival. Richard is an advocate of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the arts and works tireless for a better more thoughtful tomorrow.
Akeem Oh is a American-Canadian singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer primarily based in Toronto Canada. His work stretches across multiple creative industries such as music, film and theatre. His singles "Winter Crush" and "School Girl" were released to critical acclaim, with CBC naming the former one of the "Top 3 New Ontario Songs You Need To Hear“. The main focus for Oh has been shows, including sold out shows at Ottawa's National Arts Centre in 2022 and at the infamous Club SAW in 2023. He’ll be releasing new music in early 2024.
Jackie McCormick is an Ottawa based Stage Manager who has proudly called this city home for ten years. She was most recently the Stage Manager for the Revival of the NAC Indigenous Theatre/NEPA/GCTC co-production of Women of the Fur Trade in Toronto after its successful run in Ottawa in January. This Winter she was also the Stage Manager for the staged readings of Twisted and Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera as part of the NAC Hip Hop Festival. Jackie was also a Coordinator for the first volume of Irresistible Neighbourhoods, Ottawa 2044 this past May. Other recent Stage Management credits include The Supine Cobbler, The Unplugging (Great Canadian Theatre Company) and Perfect Wedding, Moving In, Buying the Farm, A Christmas Carol (Upper Canada Playhouse). Always grateful to her family: J, Q & B for their love and support.
Credits
Company
Creator/Performer
Sebastien Heins
Director
Nina Lee Aquino
Lighting Designer
Michelle Ramsay
Sound Designer
Richard Lee
Stage Manager
Jackie McCormick
NAC Production Team
Azrieli Studio Team
Head Technician
Stephane Boyer
Assistant Head technician
Leigh Utley
Technical Director
Peter Lyne
Projectionists, Wardrobe Mistresses, Masters and Attendants are members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 471.
The National Arts Centre is a member of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and engages, under the terms of the Canadian Theatre Agreement, professional artists who are members of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association
NAC English Theatre Team
Managing Director
David Abel
Artistic Director
Nina Lee Aquino
Senior Engagement Strategist, Community & Partnerships
Rose-Ingrid Benjamin
Learning Coordinator
Aimee Bouchard
ASL Interpreter Consultant
Carmelle Cachero
Marketing Strategist
Bar Clement
Communications Strategist
Sean Fitzpatrick
Senior Producer
Alexandra Lunney
Senior Marketing Manager
Bridget Mooney
Associate Producer, Artistic Programming and Environmental Projects
Judi Pearl
Company Manager
Samira Rose
Administrative Coordinator
Monika Seiler
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees