Photo: Sean Wilson
The old dichotomy of the wicked city versus the rural paradise became a dangerous myth in South Africa. It abetted the missionaries (‘to evangelize the noble savage and save the fallen township dweller’); helped the white liberals patronize lesser mortals (‘blacks aren’t ready for the sophistication of the city’); and in the mouths of the apartheid planners, was used to justify separate development, urban influx control and to deracinate entire populations. Some traditionalists continue to play upon this same rural idyll.
Magnet Theatre’s beautiful work ingcwaba lendoda lise cankwe ndlela (the grave of the man is next to the road), mostly avoids such traps. Hell and paradise are in people, not simply place; the journey, the search for identity is the nexus here. Pain and suffering, love and longing, arise from the relationships between characters as much as dislocating circumstances that continue to bedevil life for many economic migrants.
To give up the journey, to no longer wish ukuba sekhaya (to feel at home), this is what it means to be lost. There is an isiXhosa saying, ‘akukho ndlela ingayi ekhaya’ (there is no road that does not lead home).
A loop of video footage shot by Sanjin Muftic on the N2, along which countless young, black South Africans journey between Cape Town and their roots in the Eastern Cape, forms the background for this pulsating, richly textured, multimedia production.
Director Mandla Mbothwe employs a plethora of theatrical devices – traditional story-telling techniques, Magnet theatre’s hallmark physical theatre, music by Nolufefe Mtshabe, dance choreographed by Maxwell Xolani Rani, and accompanying percussion by Themba Pondi. But what strikes one most is the beautiful, poetic isiXhosa text (with limited and often unsynchronised English translations projected) and Mbothwe’s transcendent use of props as poetic tropes. In this lyrical work, rich in symbolism, shoes become telephones.
The ebullient cast is awash with superb performances across the board, with Thando Doni, Faniswa Yisa, Nandipha Mnyuka and Thumeka Mzayiya particularly heartfelt.
Mbothwe and co are certainly on a road to great things.
