‘Pickled’: New Belvoir production isn’t jarring at all
Image: Najee Tannous (left) and Antony Makhlouf in PICKLED, Belvoir St Theatre. Credit: Teniola Komolafe
It’s a play about grief and loss, but it’s far from maudlin. In fact, Pickled is a play filled with warmth, discovery, humour and a touch of sentimentalilty. Created by Najee Tannous and developed by Tannous, Antony Makhlouf, Hayden Tonazzi, May Yousif, & Francesco Pelli, this two-hander is about two estranged gay Arab brothers brought together after the death of their mother.
“It’s no secret, this show is about pickles,” says Tannous. “I think the title itself takes on so many different meanings and it’s dependent on how you interpret it. I think it comes down to preservation.”
The two brothers, played by Tannous and Makhlouf, have been left a jar of pickles as their only inheritence. The play evolves around their speculation as to the meaning of this stange gesture by their recently departed mother.
Tannous has drawn a lot on his own personal story in creating this show. Pickling and preservation of food was vital for survival for his ancestors, and continues to be an important part of cultural life in his family.
The inspiration for Pickled came to Tannous during Covid when he heard stories about people having arguments over inheritence. It made him wonder what his parents would leave him when they passed.
“Is it gonna be their 1992 Toyota Camry, is that what I’m inheriting? Am I inheriting gold, like what am I inheriting?”
He started thinking of the most obscure things they might leave him, and that led him on a creative and historical journey through his background and culture. Once he decided on the concept of a jar of pickles, he started workshopping with Makhlouf. Other collaborators came on board later and the whole project eventually took three years to fully develop.
While it is not biographical as such, Pickled borrows emotionally and cultural from the lives of both actors.
“The words and the dialogue really sit in the truth of our lived experience. I think that’s what’s really beautiful about this particular show is the words are just authentic, they’re so true and they really tell a lot about ourselves, about two Middle Eastern creatives that have both parents that are migrants that have come to Australia to create a new beginning,” explains Tannous.
He is also very emphatic that this is not a coming out story.
“We are not here to present queerness. These brothers just exist as queer brothers navigating the aftermath of their mother’s passing.” Queerness is not, however, irrelevant to the conversation.
“Being queer and being Arab at the same time often is a challenge. You’re confronted with a cliché narrative and often you spend most of your lifetime trying to break those motions and detach labels.”
As an artist, Tannous finds creativity a useful tool for navigating deep-seeded unattended issues, and that is very much true with regard to Pickled.
“Having developed these two characters has been, one, a healing process, but it’s also been a really beautiful process to be vulnerable again and to explore these…”
Tannous pauses, wanting to avoid the word traumatic.
“You are uncovering these stories and these moments that kind of take you back to your childhood and you think ‘wow, I didn’t realise these things had such an impact on me, like a lasting impact on me.”
In terms of production, the play boasts a team of esteemed creatives, beginning with award-winning composer Chrysoulla Markoulli, who has designed a sound scape comprised completely of breath noises. International vocal artist, Hussein Kahil provided the unique aural palate.
Acclaimed set designer, Soham Apte and co-directors Hayden Tonazzi & May Yousif, who are renowned film makers, have created and engaging, very theatrical set that allows the characters to go from a typical kitchen to various dreamscapes. There are several TV screens on stage that show real archival footage.
“There’s actually a moment in the show where there’s archival footage of two brothers dancing; they’re dressing up and putting lipstick on and then dancing, and that’s me and my brother. We were filming — we had a camcorder — and we were pretending we were doing fashion shows,” says Tannous.
During a wake scene, the actors serve coffee to the audience and invite members to share their own memories of “mum”, that is, the mother character in the play whom they have come to know through the brothers’ recollections.
Ultimately, Tannous believes Pickled is a work about family, community and the very personal yet somehow also shared experience of grief and an interrogation of the concept of inheritence.
“Sometimes inheritence isn’t monetary, you know, sometimes inheritence is the gift of something that someone has left, whether that’s a tangible thing or not. We keep holding onto those things because they’re so valuable to us.”
