Lele
Auslan Interpreted
Wheelchair Accessible
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So sayeth the king
So it must be done
Beloved brother buried
Disowned forgotten son
Two brothers who couldn’t be more different, kill each other in a moment that can never be undone, setting off a butterfly effect that explodes through a Samoan family in Australia. Lele is a story of family, honour and standing up when no one else will. It is an unapologetic exploration of the immigrant experience in Australia, and how our aiga survive and thrive in between worlds.
Lele is part Samoan siva, part drill rap concert, part love letter to the motherland and all parts a fierce reckoning of tradition, identity and our reality as immigrants in Australia.
A Western Edge production, developed by artists Chanella Macri and Rexson Pelman and brought to life by an ensemble of six Samoan performers, Lele is a re-adaptation of Lele, Butterfly – a 2018 Western Edge production from Footscray Edge who adapted Sophocles’ Antigone.
Samoae, usi le maimoa ma le tou silasila.
*Content warning: references and/or depictions of domestic violence, death and suicide; coarse language
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[Image by Sophie Gabrielle]
Meet the Artists
Born in Auckland and raised in Victoria, Michael Logo is a proud Samoan actor working across stage and screen. Trained at Verve Studios and John Bolton Theatre School, he became involved with Western Edge as an actor and Support Artist. Michael has performed in Western Edge’s productions The Retreat, The Watching, Lele, Butterfly, and worked on the script for Hamlet, translating sections into the Samoan language.
Michael has performed in Playlist Live (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), First Stage (Melbourne Theatre Company), and David Wood’s production of This (RISING). Michael’s recent screen credits include Paper Champions (Netflix), Why Are You Like This, Love Me, Colin from Accounts (Binge) and featured in short film Eli the Invincible (SBS).
Western Edge Read more +
Western Edge is a not-for-profit arts organisation creating safer spaces for young artists from Melbourne’s west to tell their own stories, with their own voice, in their own way. Western Edge creates opportunities for young people to explore creativity, learn new artistic practices and gain on-the-job employment and develop as artistic and cultural leaders.
Chanella Macri Read more +
Chanella Macri is an actor, writer and theatre-maker from the Blue Mountains, Sydney. She is a second-generation Samoan-Italian immigrant whose practice centres on body, family, loss and the intersection of cultural identity and gender. Her theatre credits include Looking for Alibrandi (Malthouse Theatre), The View from Up Here (Theatre Works), I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Cooking For (Melbourne Fringe), Australian Realness (Malthouse Theatre) and more.
As one of Western Edge’s current co-Artistic Directors, Chanella has worked with Western Edge since 2019, previously as a lead artist and a co-director of The Watching.
Rexson Pelman Read more +
Rexson Pelman is a performer, sound designer, facilitator, rapper, music producer and wrestler, as well as a full-time labourer and father of five. He has worked as a sound designer, engineer and performer for a number of arts organisations and events, including Backbone Youth Arts QLD, Uprising Theatre, Playback West, Platform Youth Theatre and Metonnoia Theatre.
Since joining Western Edge as a participant at 14 years of age, Rexson has performed in countless productions, including Scheherazade (FCAC, 2014), Iago (Malthouse, 2015) and Caliban (Malthouse, 2016). He now works as a lead artist, as well as a sound designer and composer for Western Edge.
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