Midsumma Pulls Show From 2021 Program Over Accusations of Blackface
In only a few short weeks Midsumma Festival will kick off its 2021 season, with a plethora of events taking over Melbourne from the 19th of April to the 5th of May. However, one show in particular has upset a number of individuals within our local LGBTQI communities and has left the performer at the centre of the show, Fabio Cattafi, to deal with accusations of racism and most alarmingly blackface.
The show itself A Night With Tina was set to open at infamous Chapel St establishment Chasers Night Club, which is owned by the same company behind Inflation Nightclub, a venue which has been known to court its own controversy in recent times. The show stands cancelled for now, with Cattafi promising to return at a later date.
The show’s description on Eventbrite said, “Fabio’s obsession with Tina Turner began at the tender age of 14, when he put on a show for his large Italian family and sang Proud Mary into a mop and bucket.” The description continues by saying “Transformed into Tina, thanks to handmade copies of original Tina Turner costumes, Fabio’s flawless look is enough to convince anyone that Tina was right there on stage.”
Yet the fact remains, we are talking about a performer of European descent, playing the role of a women whose father was an African American Baptist deacon and whose mother was a farmer of part-Cherokee and Navajo descent.
Despite numerous attempts to set up an interview with Cattafi in recent days Star Observer was unable to speak with the performer firsthand to try and understand their position on the matter, leaving us only able to refer back to a statement Cattafi released through his own social media channels, in which he claims “I’m a performer paying tribute to a woman I adore, admire and love. My show is fun and an uplifting celebration for us all, but some people have turned it into a political or race issue which couldn’t be any further from my artistic intention & passion.
“My show is not designed to offend anyone, if anything it’s designed to celebrate an icon and her culture as well as uplift and celebrate life.”
Irrespective of his intentions, however noble, in 2021, it is simply not good enough, to hide behind such excuses, particularly when issues of representation are dominating conversations within and outside of the creative industries.
Speaking with Star Observer, Karen Bryant, CEO of Midsumma Festival, told us that the festival team “had a number of conversations with [Cattafi] where we sought to provide him with any information that would support him to do [the show] himself, selling tickets through his own ticketing platform”.
“We did do this, after a number of discussions with [Cattafi] and after we received significant complaints from a number of people in our community who were feeling great offence towards marketing material of the show which was considered to be black or brownface.
“We have a policy in place that requires that Midsumma has no events, promotion, or marketing that could be seen as either discriminatory towards others or likely to cause harm or offence to parts of our community in relation to current contemporary expectations. Unfortunately, we did try and find a way to resolve this with the producer, but it was unable to be resolved.
“The performer believed the material was not offensive and didn’t mind that other people did take offence. We couldn’t move forward with a show where a portion of our community felt discriminated or offended by that content.”
“We work across diverse communities, we recognise there is always a diversity of opinions that exists within that, but Midsumma has to be a place where everybody needs to feel safe and supported,” added Bryant.
Midsumma has now removed the event listing from its festival website and program, with Cattafi vowing to present the work at a later date. Whether or not he wakes up to the offence he has caused, remains to be seen.
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How far will people continue to go to blow things out of proportion. This is utter crap and such an embarrassment to those involved. It’s an Italian man playing tribute to a performer. Does anyone carry on at other drags doing Dolly Parton cause she’s white? Get a grip the lot of you.
This is the content of an email sent to Midsumma festival. Maybe you could look further into this matter.
I have just read that a Tina Turner show was cancelled due to concerns about racism and blackface.
If Midsumma is going to bend to political correctness and what is deemed offensive, then I question the inclusion of a show called Matador. This title is taking from a sport that has glamourised the killing of animals for people’s enjoyment. Spain is desperately trying to turn a leaf to eradicate this sport and to remove itself from the stigma of the senseless slaughter of so many animals. This show is also by someone that is not Spanish or even from a Spanish speaking background. He is appropriating from a culture unrelated to his own and trying to glamourise a simple love story by using what he probably thinks is a ‘cool’ name. At the very least, Matador means killer. Is he glamourising violence in relationships?? As a person with a Spanish heritage, I am extremely offended by this show, it’s appropriation of a Spanish term that brings us offence and reminds us of the brutal history of a national sport, in order to try and sell a love story through a dance show. This is not acceptable nor should it be admitted to any stage that is supported by a reputable festival or by the local governments. I will be pursuing this matter with the journalist that wrote the article about the Tina Turner show and I will be forwarding my concerns to Peta and the Spanish embassy.
I hope that Midsumma recognize their error and take the same action and stance that has been taken against the Tina Turner show.
Thank you
Great news! I’d love to see a Tina show. I’m looking forward to the next Tina Turner impersonator willing to do a show, who is (most importantly), the cis-gendered daughter of an African American Baptist deacon and whose mother was a farmer of part-Cherokee and Navajo descent. Once we have a contender, we can attend.
In the meantime, I’ll have to make sure I don’t attend any show where the actor is not the exact same skin tone as the character. I’m guessing that Cattafi’s olive skin tone means he also can’t play anglo-celtic roles either.
I noticed the following opinions expressed in this article but it’s not clear whose opinions these are:
“Yet the fact remains, we are talking about a performer of European descent, playing the role of a women whose father was an African American Baptist deacon and whose mother was a farmer of part-Cherokee and Navajo descent.”
“Irrespective of his intentions, however noble, in 2021, it is simply not good enough, to hide behind such excuses, particularly when issues of representation are dominating conversations within and outside of the creative industries.”
“Whether or not he wakes up to the offence he has caused, remains to be seen.”
Seems a bit unfair to be subjecting someone to this kind of bullying through the media, don’t you think?