KLII exorcizes the ghost of King Leopold II through a mytho-biographical performance by theater-maker Kaneza Schaal. Designed and co-directed by Christopher Myers, KLII draws on Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy published in 1905, a fictional monologue written after Twain’s visit to Congo Free State and Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech in Congo. Increasingly our demons are invisible, long-hidden racism, misogyny, misinformation, and even the virus. How do we handle these threats which are as central to our everyday life as they are hidden? Schaal and Myers propose an exorcism in theater, starring one of the villains of the 19th century whose actions resonate through the present day.

Director’s Note: I have been thinking about the nature of evil. Today, we look at a figure like King Leopold II with mock horror. His atrocities stun and outrage. However, we rarely look at a figure like Leopold II without the safety of saying he is bad and we are done with him. What of his residue in our everyday lives? And the new Leopolds that emerge every day? Increasingly our demons are invisible, long hidden racism and misogyny, misinformation, even the virus. How do we handle these threats which are as central to our everyday life as they are hidden. KLII proposes an exorcism, in theater, starring one of the villains of the 19th century whose actions resonate through the present day. This remixing points towards the flush of revolutionary thought and practice that flooded between black people internationally in the mid 20th century and ignited movements of solidarity between formerly enslaved and colonized peoples around the world. A moment where the looking inward and outward at imperialism and evil mobilized powerful South-South alliances from Cuba to Ethiopia to Senegal to Vietnam to Haiti to Rwanda. Unless we look at these Leopolds both within us and around us we are doomed to relive their horrors.

–Kaneza Schaal

Texts: King Leopold’s Soliloquy by Mark Twain, Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech in Congo, Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire, monologue by Christopher Myers.

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