It’s crazy, my first tour starts here.
I know it’s a big deal to be performing at Glastonbury cause everyone around me seems to be gassed. I don’t think it’s quite hit me yet… I’m still in the whirlwind of preparing for it, but in the still moments, I hear a small voice tell me, “Yes. This is exactly where I’m meant to be.”
Hi, I’m LULA.XYZ — an artist, technologist and storyteller of Eritrean heritage, raised in North London, shaped by post-Thatcherite Britain, RomCom’s and Bjork. The work I bring to Glastonbury has taken a decade to develop, and it is just the tip of the iceberg. When you are doing something that no one has ever done, things just take the time they take.
I AM — One of many many of One, is the 1st ‘episode’ in a modular theatre series. Think Black Mirror but for the stage, it’s binge-worthy theatre. Free from traditional narrative structures and rooted in the code switching of human experience. The story is presented in a technically fantastical way.
I am definitely a child of the digital age. I sometimes ask myself, ‘how did you get here’, reflecting on the fact that all I wanted to do was ‘fit in’, not stand out. I guess that wasn’t to be my story.
As a child, I always wanted to play an instrument, any instrument. But an immigrant household was not the breeding ground for musical aspirations, coupled with the fact that school tried to give me a violin to learn — the most unforgiving instrument for a beginner.
Fast forward to adulthood, a time when you can only blame yourself for the life you are living. That outlook led me back to my first love: sound.
In the early days, I went from singing a cappella, with the streets of London as a bed of sound to riff over, then evolved to exploring digital instruments that opened up new possibilities for live performance that were not dependent on access or network.
With traditional instruments, I could never reach a level of proficiency that gave me true artistic freedom. Perhaps they were too binary for my neurodivergent adult brain. But in the digital sphere, I was able to unearth something that had lain dormant for years. And it became all-consuming.
Armed with a laptop and headphones as my companions, I blindly trusted a creative process and followed it down a rabbit hole. It manifested itself into audio/visual landscapes industry heads described as trippy, layered and soulful. I thank Ella, Lauren Hill and Oumou Sangare who were the soundtrack to this era on my playlist.
During this time, I would go to write a song and 10 pages later find myself still writing. I was building worlds where characters as vivid as you and I, they had pressing things to say and wouldn’t stop talking until I noted it down. And the way they would talk was through many mediums.
It was almost like an annoying toddler; it didn’t matter what I was doing, it would trouble me until I gave it attention.
I didn’t know what was to become of all this. But in 2014, I was introduced to MiMU Gloves – a wearable gestural midi controller (as used by Imogen Heap). It was a game changer.
I could now paint and colour outside the confinement of my laptop and bring these worlds to life. I would conduct a multimedia symphony through gestures.
Granted, it has its own complications, and at the time, there were no YouTube tutorials. I know I’m romanticising the process, it was definitely a painful process; however, there was something in the experience I could weather, cause I foresaw it as a portal to reaching something great inaccessible any other way. Obstacles are the breeding ground for innovation, it’s the immigrant way.
Whilst I could use the technology just to do cool things for cool things’ sake, I prefer to be connected to the idea that we are more similar than we are different, but our difference makes an interesting, colourful world. After all, all the tech used in the gloves, you have access to through your phone, one way or another.
At its heart, the I AM series is about me trying to write about the girl-next-door who happens to be Habesha (Eritrea/Ethiopian). Someone you may have seen, met, actually know or perhaps have seen a version of her in yourself at a particular moment in time.
It is funny, honest and visceral, it will definitely take you on a kaleidoscope of emotions. Each episode is a sequence of vignettes — moments in the day and the life of this body, having a human experience, presented in a 4D way, just as we experience life itself.
I AM: One of Many, Many of One opening scene is set in the present, and the show moves fluidly between different dimensions, through the world of the character being penned to that of the creator (me). Audiences are offered a peek under the hood — a chance to witness how this fantastical world is built, almost like catching a glimpse behind the curtain of The Wizard of Oz.
It opens a window onto a creative process rarely seen, and the complexities of what it means to be the first at anything, let alone a young East African woman carving new ground in the arts. It’s Afrofuturism through an East African lens, or as I like to call it, Habesha Futurism.
Whilst I AM: One of Many, Many of One is classified as ‘theatre’, it isn’t quite theatre, musical or comedy — it is a new kind of storytelling. So come with no preconceived ideas.
This is a show that creates space for reflection and connection. It invites us to focus more on what unites than divides. And how it does that is best experienced, not explained.
It’s for everyone whose past is baked into their present and those who want to feel a story move through them, not just passively sit and watch.
And at a time where there is so much uncertainty and unrest because of the advent of AI or the political landscape, this story, this show, is a testament to how we survive.
It’s very Glastonbury, I think. Not because of the sounds or the scale. But because it’s about togetherness. A kind of communion that says: We are One. But we are one of Many. And us, together, is One.
See you there.
🗓️ LULA.XYZ Performance Times
🎪 The Astrolabe Theatre: Sunday, 29th June — 13:10 – 14:10
