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“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, she was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually managed by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, she went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (first staged in the city in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, the dates