From 1 to 4 October 2025, Footscray Community Arts will host the premiere season of I Met An Angel Named Jacques, a bold new work from multidisciplinary artist Gideon D. Wilonja. Performed in the Footscray Community Arts Performance Space, this debut run is backed by the Jewel Box Commission – an initiative designed to elevate early career Black, Indigenous, and PoC artists.
At its core, the production is a charged portrait of desire, ego, and survival. The story orbits L’or, a celebrated artist who seems untouchable under the spotlight, and Jacques, an ambitious critic whose words cut deep. Their collision sparks a chain of events that forces the characters, and the audience, to reckon with grief, validation, and the precarious pull of destructive love.
“The catalyst for creating *I Met An Angel Named Jacques was my obsession with relationships that are both magnetic and destructive,” says Wilonja. “I was interested in how love, ambition, and ego collide, especially in queer Black lives where identity and desire are always under some kind of scrutiny.”
Wilonja notes that colonialism, homophobia, and transphobia have fractured cultural and spiritual systems across the world. This backdrop informs the work’s exploration of intimacy, faith, and the search for belonging. The result is a performance that shifts between realism, poetry, and dreamlike intensity.
“Audiences can expect something that feels both intimate and volatile,” Wilonja says.
The cast brings heavy talent to the stage: Ras Samuel (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, The Clearing) joins Wilonja in the lead roles, alongside Ben Chisholm, Sasha Hannequin, and Atinuke Abraham. Together, they anchor a production that promises to resonate long after the curtain falls.
I Met An Angel Named Jacques runs for four performances only. Details at footscrayarts.com
