THE LAST GATEKEEPER

The Obsidian Theatre Festival returns for our 3rd Annual Season with this Musical Theatre Showcase piece written by Germono Toussaint.

The Last Gatekeeper; is a three-act, extended-reality enhanced, Afro-futurist, musical theater experience, inspired by the teachings of West African shaman and scholar Malidoma Patrice Somé. The term Gatekeeper refers to the indigenous belief that those who express themselves as same-gender loving (SGL) maintain the portals between the physical and spiritual worlds. They are guardians who restore balance and harmony when there is a crisis in the community. The story is set in a capital city 50 years after the apocalypse. As engagement with the ancestor realm dwindles on earth, the gates between the physical and spiritual worlds begin to close, which causes catastrophic natural disasters. The country’s totalitarian regime called “The Administration," blames these disasters on “Dissenters” or anyone deemed a threat to their power and control. Activists, individualists, SGL, or SGL/Queer folk, feminists, and anyone in the underground movement called “The Resistance," are targets for The Administration. Being a Dissenter has deadly consequences, the reward for their capture is enticing and the punishment for their protection is terrifying. Nandi, a second-generation West African mother, suspects that her spiritually gifted, sensitive, and inquisitive son Soku, is SGL/Queer. To maintain Soku’s safety, Nandi tries to keep him from embracing his true nature, while his grandmother Adisa, a witch trained in the traditions of her people, counters this by teaching him the ways of the ancient Gatekeepers, connecting him to his ancestor spirits, and helping him develop his spiritual gifts. Guided by Adisa and his ancestor spirits, Soku moves towards embracing his true nature, which gives him the power to re-open the gates, overthrow The Administration, and restore balance to the world.