Georges Michael Fanfan is Costuming Class Conscious Theatre for BTW’s co-pro ‘Diggers’
By Darragh Kilkenny-Mondoux
Black Theatre Workshop and Prairie Theatre Exchange bring us Diggers, billed as “a tribute to essential workers”. Set in contemporary Sierra Leone, the inciting incident is a mass fatal illness that loads more work and no glory on the eponymous laborers.
Georges Michael Fanfan, Costume Designer
From the press release: “The themes depicted in Diggers provide a platform to acknowledge and honour the resilience of essential workers. The characters and their journey are relevant to the forever-changed society we live in today. A thought-provoking tale, Diggers offers audiences an opportunity to reflect and empathize.” It is clear from these materials that the recollection of the total shuttering of theatre company activities is born in mind when choosing to produce this play now. While our industry and our work was deemed “not essential,” companies can come back from the blow of those years with class conscious works to share.
Georges Michael Fanfan is tasked with costuming the four cast members: Chance Jones, Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren, Christian Paul and Warona Setshwaelo. As an alumnus of the BTW Artist Mentorship Program, the return of Fanfan to the company as a fully emerged artist is another success story of the company.
When asked for three words that the design team returned to again and again for the texture and lived-in feel of the costumes for this piece, Fanfan sums up the core aesthetic principles thusly:
“Movement. Simplicity. And dirty!”
Costume concept by Michael Georges Fanfan for Sheila, portrayed by Warona Setshwaelo.
Grinning through the cheek, these qualities evoke the authentically dusty, soiled, earthen quality of the environment these characters inhabit that is reflected in the costumes worn. Designing the costumes for the solitary female character, we are promised Ms. Setshwaelo will shine in patterned prints and vivid colours, while still reflecting the same loving ode to the laboring class of essential workers.
Costume concept by Michael Georges Fanfan for Bai, portrayed by Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren.
Coming from a fashion background - Fanfan holding a DEC in fashion and having pursued further studies in this field at L’École supérieure de mode (UQAM) - he likens it more to styling than costuming, per se. Having cut his teeth at the Shaw Festival in recent years, Fanfan is no stranger to period dramas, and the demands on costuming staff to create functioning costumes that actors can work in and characters can live in.
Costume concept by Michael Georges Fanfanfor for Bai, portrayed by Christian Paul.
Left to right: Costume Patina Specialist, Véronique Marcoux and Costume Designer, Georges Michael Fanfan at Espace Costume.
Diggers, however, is not a period piece. Fanfan explains of the occupation of its three leading men, “I can definitely see how it would seem macabre, but there is so much levity to the storytelling,” and this is sure to be reflected in the costume design. He cites a major inspiration for all the costumes as streetwear, with elements of couture. This most keenly reflects the wider artistic values of this play. Among its roots, some fabrics and patterns in streetwear come from uniforms and serviceable garments of physical laborers of 20th century North America, reclaimed as statement pieces and allowing the wearer to embody a free range of physicality. It’s also a much less gender-divided style of clothing. A working class solidarity emerges from this design choice alone. While Fanfan likens it more to styling streetwear than creating couture, it is clear that this homecoming designing contract for BTW shows an emerging artist coming into their own, and enjoying creative leadership. “It feels good to feel like they trust me with this vision”, he says.
Left to right: Chance Jones (Abdul), Christian Paul (Solomon) and Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren (Bai). Photo Credit: Andree Lanthier.
It ought not to be lost on audience members that a play that dramatizes the contemporary experience of essential workers is extremely timely in Quebec, where a worker’s victorious strike so recently rang in the streets. Teachers and health workers, a diverse and feminized workforce, were the essential workers kept highly exposed through the pandemic, and who had to bring their public systems to a stop to negotiate with the provincial government for fair contracts. Bear this context in mind when you take your seat at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts between the 1st & 17th of Black History Month to take in the world premiere of this gravely significant play.