When South Sudanese actor-writer and former refugee Mandela Mathia’s one-man show Lose to Win premiered in 2024, MusicalTheatre.AU called it “a story that needs to be told on the Australian stage… poignant and emotive storytelling at its finest.”
ACT region audiences will be able to see the show for one night only in Queanbeyan this Saturday.
“This show is about events of my life from birth all the way to Australia, where I explore the theme of self-acceptance, perseverance and hopes,” Mathia says.
Mathia lost his parents while still a child, victims of the Sudanese civil war. He learnt on his first day of school that his father had been shot, while his mother later drowned.
The boy fled South Sudan and moved to Egypt, before “making it to Australia as the Promised Land” — the ‘win’ of the title.
Here, influenced by Egyptian television, he pursued theatre, starting with a TAFE certificate before attending NIDA.
The subject matter is often heavy, but music (including songs his mother sang), dance, and lighter moments provide relief.
“This show kind of helps give young people, everyone, the hope to reinvent themselves and feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel,” Mathia said.
Mathia had other titles in mind: What the War Had Stolen, Letters to My Father. But Lose to Win was the phrase that stayed with him.
“It’s about basically me losing important things in my life at a young age, then gaining.”
Originally, Mathia planned to relate what happened to his family. Growing up in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown, however, he noticed South Sudanese boys getting in trouble with the law — and how the broader Australian community reacted.
“Rather than demonising the bad apples, they were demonising the whole community. Whenever the good ones wanted to apply for jobs … our resumés would take forever, were never looked at. They didn’t want to hire us because they thought we were all bad apples and troublemakers.
“It was affecting the community heavily, and I knew that this could get even worse: if the government or the police was to do something in the community, there would be no outcry from the broader community to come and give grace to this [South Sudanese] community.”
Lose to Win is a plea for Australians to give that grace to refugees and new immigrants when they arrive, often traumatised, so they can adjust properly to their new country.
“The audience understood that message, and were in agreement with me,” Mathia says. “Every night, I felt like we were celebrating together.”
The Q, Saturday 2 May, 7.30pm, 70 minutes, ages 15+. Tickets: $30–$60. Bookings: https://theq.net.au/whats-on/lose-to-win/
