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.
