Ikhwezi Theatre Festival (Baxter Theatre) March 11 to 20

The worthy but poorly publicized annual Ikhwezi Theatre Festival, a developmental programme of original South African plays by community theatre groups opens next week. Festival Director Itumeleng Wa-Lehulere, who has nurtured the festival, is not it seems adequately supported on the marketing front. Like many such initiatives, the concerns are in-house, getting the works staged, running workshops, mentoring the talent, and not it seems on attracting an audience.

Information on the works is as scant as ever, but the M&G would like to bring this festival to your attention.

Ikhwezi is isiXhosa for the planet Venus as the morning star, a guiding light. Wa-Lehulere explains, “The fruits of our work are evident through the success of the young theatre-makers who have already made a name for themselves and the different productions which cut their theatrical teeth here…We cannot deny South Africa the platform which Ikhwezi offers”. This is true enough, though Itsoseng, Dens Wit Me and this year’s The Crossing were already developed elsewhere.
Ikhwezi gave them a crucial leg up, and for many community groups, this is their big break.

In the year after celebrating its first decade, Ikhwezi was in danger of closing down from lack of funds. It was to be downscaled to only six productions this year, but there are now twelve works listed.

There are always notable directors at work; this time – Maurice Podbury directs Vusi Mazibuko’s wonderfully titled A Plague of Heroes, Bo Petersen directs Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala’s The Crossing (the true story of Nkala’s journey from the small dusty village of Kwe Kwe in Zimbabwe to Cape Town; Rob van Vuuren directs Shimmy Isaacs’s Allie Pad Funny Worcester.
There are works in several languages and productions are under 60 minutes. Go to PDF for schedules.

March 5, 2010 | Tags: , | Comments Closed

New Winter in Gugs (Baxter)

Red WinterFew events came closer to derailing the negotiations for a democratic South Africa than the assassination of the immensely popular South African Communist Party secretary-general Chris Hani in April 1993. The militant youth took it as proof that the proletariat were about to be sold out. There were renewed calls for mass protest, for a ‘red winter’.

Red Winter in Gugs is a coming of age story set in that turbulent time. Qagamba, a schoolgirl, falls for young comrade, Phila, with tragic consequences.

The play is performed in what has become the accepted style of our ‘poor man’s’ theatre, a narrative told by one actor playing all the parts. Although many of us are tiring of this technique, which despite the versatility of a performer still has severe limitations, Phumeza Rashe pulls it off. She has a stunning stage presence, captivating good looks and the audience instantly warms to her empathic portrayal.

The shifting chronology used in plotting the story does not always enhance the drama and the insertion of a lengthy, redundant, recorded political speech is deflating. Projecting photographs of the struggle from as far back as the 1960s adds disorder, and although these may give historical background, the focus would be better if kept to the period in which the story is set.

Developed by Sizisa Ukhanyo Company and directed by Itumeleng Wa-Lehulere, Red Winter was selected as one of the best of the 2008 Tenth Anniversary Ikhwezi Theatre Festival, and stands as testament to the importance of that initiative

March 6, 2009 | Tags: , | Comments Closed

Kusalawula Yena (He Still Rules) Little Theatre

It is hardly a moot point that the lack of dramas in African languages on our stages borders on the astonishing, if not the schizophrenic. After all, the visionary Sol Plaatje was translating several of Shakespeare’s plays into Setswana including A Comedy of Errors (Diposho-posho) in the 1920s and Robert Sobukwe was even working on a Zulu translation of Macbeth in the 1950s. Play after play is performed in English even when this seems very contrived. Reasons there are, but it is hard to accept that at the 31st National Arts Festival (NAF) there was still not a single African language play on the main stage. Even in film it has been a problem. I suspect that part of the success of Tsotsi and U-Carmen eKhayelitsha was that they were in the languages of reality.

Equally, it should also be of concern that there is almost no Afrikaans theatre – historically a vital energy in our cultural landscape – at the NAF. In the last decade we have seen more division, not less. One of the only Afrikaans pieces at the NAF last year was Kobus Moolman’s Full Circle about disenfranchised poor white Afrikaans right-wing fundamentalists plotting to overthrow the democratic government – performed in English! This may be perfect symbolism. But it’s a cultural disaster for the taal if Afrikaans theatre practitioners withdraw into their own festival laager in Oudsthoorn and don’t put in at Grahamstown. The biggest festival in terms of tickets sold is now Oudsthoorn, and it is close to being exclusively Afrikaans.

The encouraging news regarding African language drama is that the University of Cape Town’s first full-length isiXhosa-only production (no subtitles) is apparently almost sold out. Kudos are due to director Thoko Ntshinga who has adapted GBS Xundu’s lengthy novel Kusalawula Yena for the stage. The projection of a digital clock dramatises the timeframe and video footage gives us the off-stage action – a little protracted in the first half. A grade 12 setwork, learners have been struggling with Xundu’s deep vernacular Xhosa. The play version has helped enormously.

The cast of second and third year students are young, but mature. Xolisa Kapakati plays Sesh Betinja, a God-fearing and successful young man who falls prey to a syndicate of professional con artists out to milk him in every possible way. We watch to see if Sesh, through his stubborn – almost naive – perseverance, will finally out manoeuvre the sharks. During the course of ninety minutes, he remains clear-headed and steady, though he is fleeced, robbed, mugged, nearly arrested, held up at gunpoint and beaten.

A production of this nature holds great touring possibilities. The previous performing arts’ councils regularly toured schools with setworks and dramatic extracts to introduce scholars to the magical world of theatre. Why the present department of education, and arts and culture, are not conducting similar initiatives on a massive scale is distressingly myopic. South Africa has a vast untapped audience waiting to discover theatre, especially if productions are to be in indigenous languages.

Another Grade 12 setwork, Nosel’eyibethile Akakayoji, will be directed by Itumeleng Wa-Lehulere at Artscape from May 9 to 20.

April 21, 2006 | Tags: , | Comments Closed