“The Brothers Size” is a contemporary stage play that blends West African mythology with music, dance, and poetry. Set in the Louisiana bayou, it is the tale of two brothers, Ogun and Oshoosi Size.
Ogun is the hardworking and stable older brother, while his younger brother, Oshoosi, is a recently released convict. Oshoosi is trying to rediscover himself as a free man, but his journey is complicated by the appearance of his old prison mate, Elegba.
“The Brothers Size” is written by the Oscar award-winning screenwriter of the film “Moonlight,” Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is also the co-creator of the fondly received OWN drama TV series “David Makes Man.”
With a rising number of television and film credits, McCraney’s entertainment roots began in the theatre, and he is the current artistic director of the Geffen Playhouse.
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In fact, “The Brothers Size” will be the first production of the Geffen’s upcoming season, and the play is scheduled to run August 14 through September 8, 2024.
McCraney said although he was raised as a Baptist Christian, he was exposed to many different cultural understandings, which are rooted in his Afro Caribbean background. It is an identity and experience he said is common with many people from his hometown of Miami, Florida.
“I learned it in music. I learned it in dance, and parades… and seeing vodou and Santeria ceremonies as a young person,” said McCraney.
“You learned everything that we were taught had some other context to it – had some other nuance to it, so you never took things at face value.”
McCraney said “The Brothers Size” is the first play he wrote as an adult 20 years ago. He described it as a combination of his culturally rich childhood experiences with his later training as a student of multiple disciplines in the performing arts.
“All of that came together to create something I felt was unique to my life or to the way in which I grew up, which was this hybridity of these older West African stories being presented through a more contemporary lens,” said McCraney.
McCraney said even in his film and television work you will see those West African and Caribbean influences in the content he creates. “All those references are alive in my work,” he said.
“The Brothers Size” covers themes of self-discovery, brotherhood, and family.
McCraney believes people can be biologically born into families, but they can also choose their families. Either way, he said those relationships should be nourishing, and when they stop being nutritious, they may evolve into something else.
“It doesn’t mean that folks have to disconnect,” said McCraney. “It just may mean they are not engaged in each other, anymore. In ‘The Brothers Size,’ I think these are three men who will always be bound together.”
He continued, “In the Yoruba tradition, Ogun, Oshoosi, and Elegba come to you together. They are three warriors, and in this story of these three men named after these three ancestors – they’ll always be connected.”
Ogun, Oshoosi, and Elegba are an alliance of three warriors in Yoruba folklore. They all live together as brothers and a team. Strength through unity is an overarching message behind the tale.
“This is a play about an archetype – about how big does your brother need to be,” said McCraney. “I’m the big brother of four. I have [two little brothers], who are both bigger than me, and there’s something about that I’ve always been thinking about.
“How big do I need to be to be your brother? How strong do I need to be? What size of a brother do I need to be in order to maintain you, and literally to protect you from harm,” he continued. “I had to get bigger to do that, and I had to make more capacity in my heart, my mind, and in my spirit to do that.”
For more information on the Geffen Playhouse production of “The Brothers Size,” visit https://www.geffenplayhouse.org/shows/the-brothers-size/
