Rapper, poet and author Omar Musa premiered his solo show Since Ali Died at Griffin Theatre Company last year at the inaugural Batch Festival, programmed to present new works that expand the boundaries of theatre. The show was a smash hit and now returns for another season, in association with Sydney Festival, then tours to Parramatta and Canberra.

Omar Musa in Since Ali Died. Photograph © Robert Catto

Born in Queanbeyan, New South Wales, into a Malaysian-Australian Muslim family, Musa uses the death of his hero, boxing legend Muhammad Ali, as the starting point and “lyrical springboard” for the piece, bringing together a compelling mix of rap, poetry and song to tell personal stories and reflect on what it means to live in Australia as “a brown man living in a black land”.

We hear about the alienated boys he grew up with, his close friend Danny, whose smile sometimes looked like a shark’s, the girlfriend he’d love to “unsettle down with”, the father obsessed with praying whose temper becomes shorter as his prayers grow longer, frequently taking it out on his son, and the mother who bolsters and encourages her “beautiful boy” when she...