A surreal musical melodrama about personal and political power set in the ancient world sandwiched between the ultra modern inspired by the legend of Kawa, a gentle patriarchal blacksmith, who reluctantly leads a revolution against a tyrannical Serpent King, whose pact with the Shadow to gain absolute power causes two human-brain eating serpents to grow from his shoulders. The rebellion succeeds, but Kawa shocks everyone when he refuses the throne. 

SYNOPSIS:

Think cult musicals like 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 'Cabarat' and 'Fiddler on the Roof', complete with an acrobatic musical songster of a female court jester who intrudes in what happens, the drama of King Lear, the politics of Brecht, the black humour of 'Edward Scissorhand', and the innovative use of film by Terrence Malick, Oliver Stone's JFK and Godfrey Reggio.

The Blacksmith’ opens and finishes in the 21st century but is set mainly 6,000 years ago. To gain absolute power, a cruel tyrant called Zohag makes a pact with The Shadow, which manifests as a disembodied voice and light show, as well as two serpents that grow out of Zohag’s shoulders. These serpents cause Zohag agony unless fed a human brain each day.

As people disappear and bloody battles rage in and outside the empire, family and friends demand Kawa lead an uprising to overthrow Zohag. He tries peaceful ways to stop the killing but finally agrees to supply weapons and train rebels in the mountains. His rebellious outspoken daughter insists on joining him.

The revolution succeeds, but Kawa is shocked by his rage in bludgeoning Zohag to death despite Zohag’s pleas for mercy and his daughter being in mortal danger.

Afterwards, Kawa makes everyone angry when he refuses the throne, particularly his wife, who knows there is no better man. A known spy has trained an eagle to select a nobleman as the next king. As soon as this nobleman becomes king, he starts a war to force people to believe in his one true god.

The new king sends commandoes after Kawa, who manages to hide his wife and only surviving child but cannot save himself. Yet the seeds of a new world have been planted in his nephew, wife and friends, and in the finale, the Court Jester sings for everyone to make it happen.

The legend has strong parallels with the modern word. Kawa is an everyman, a hero and anti-hero. His daughter Dilber represents the brave Kurdish women fighting the tyranny of Islamic State since 2014. Serpents eating human brains is a metaphor for capitalism, consumption and twenty

first century AI and mobile phones.

When talking about war and power, Zohag’s speeches quote twenty-first-century leaders like George W. Bush and Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Tyrants call freedom fighters ‘terrorists’. Many governments fake events and/or information to distract, blame, or spread misinformation. The failure of Kawa’s uprising to affect real change reflects the failures of the ‘Arab Spring’. After decades of tyranny, most revolutions fail.

The Blacksmith' is designed to have an audience laugh, cry, think and inspire all at the same time.

THE BLACKSMITH