The Last Princess of Lebanon

Artist, dancer, writer and performer, Nadia Milford, explores her Lebanese family heritage in her debut one-woman show, The Last Princess of Lebanon. And, while there is an interesting photo display in BEMAC’s foyer, this is not just a family history slideshow. Nadia evokes the larger question of ‘genetic memory’ as her own life story starts to connect and intertwine with that of her great-grandmother’s, Amira (Princess) Nadia Abillama, who was sent to Australia in an arranged marriage when she was just 15 years old. The show is narrated first by a young Nadia as she climbs mulberry trees in her Dalby home, and tries to convince us and her schoolmates that her great-grandmother really was a princess in Lebanon. At first Nadia connects with her namesake’s innocence and the romance of the story. She loves her great-grandmother’s vintage fashions – the family ran a drapery in the town centre. But eventually the mystery falls away like rotting mulberries as she comes to learn the realities of her ancestor’s life: Amira Nadia was married off to a husband more than twice her age. She is put to work in the family business and becomes more of a worker and carer to her husband. When he dies, she discovers a box of letters that he had concealed from her family in Lebanon. When she finally returns to her home country, the many conflicts have changed the place forever and it is no longer the home she remembers.

The mulberry tree takes centre stage in a sparce design by Penny Challen, who also uses white lace curtains to evoke wedding dresses and bed clothes, purple stains drawing the obvious link between mulberry juice and blood. Lighting design by Briana Clark helps to move Nadia in clever pods from one setting to another, and transport us from Dalby to Lebanon, assisted by sound design from Anna Whitaker, and a recorded soundscape of traditional Lebanese music performed by Samira El Koussa. As usual, live music would have added to the energy of the piece, but movement and choreography by Nadia adds this touch in a lively performance of just over an hour. Experienced performer and director, Leah Shelton takes the helm and controls the piece to keep it succinct and moving. In Nadia’s blogs she talks about how collaborative the creative process was, with input and ideas from all the creative crew. This makes me think about the value of the BEMAC venue. While she has travelled and performed internationally, Nadia is a young artist, and working with her more experienced crew of creatives must have added to her process, which is important for future works also. This piece is presented in partnership with BEMAC, a subsidiary of Settlement Services International. Support has been provided by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, Empire Theatres, the Regional Arts Development Fund (which supports local arts in regional Queensland), the City of Gold Coast, and Home of the Arts (HOTA) at the Gold Coast, where Nadia was resident ArtKeeper in 2022, and where she first started to develop this project. Nadia also credits partnerships and mentorships from Aleea Monsour, Belloo Creative, Wesley Enoch, Nerida Matthaei and Phluxus2 Dance Collective, Studio1 and The Farm. As the saying goes, it takes a village … and these collaborations are vital to our local arts landscape.

And find out more about the work: https://bemac.org.au/event/nadia-milfords-the-last-princess-of-lebanon/

Beth Keehn

Photographer: Sam Scoufos