Goat

SARAFINA

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SARAFINA

At Joburg Theatre to watch SARAFINA. Beyond ecstatic to watch this masterpiece. Full house, every seat taken and it’s like that for the remainder of the run. The movie is pretty great but there is nothing like the theatrical production.

Bantu education, exuberant youth in black and white uniform, soldiers, police, violence, despair and hope. I’ll extend my neck and declare that it’s the greatest show of all time! Perfect choreography, heavenly voices, boundless energy, relatable South African characters, world class performers, fabulous lighting that moved the story and the content is king! The lighting throughout the show is just wonderful. The set evokes the 1970’s, wide stage that is separated by a fence. One side is the students world and the otherside, the soldiers world. On either side of the students world is scaffolding. When there was a monologue, the students dispersed to the scaffolding, making the stage bigger for the performer sharing the monologue. Focus, intensity, with the spotlight fully illuminating the performer.

The play speaks to something deep – freedom. The right to exist without demarcation, limitations or conditions imposed by the unjust, unfair system. The right to just be. Huge stage, the performers make used of every inche. They run, they jump, they dance, they are energetic, animated, expressive and free. The music band are just the best. At the start of the show, the theatre suffered a blackout, the auditorium was dark, the band carried on playing as the audience took out their cellphones to provide the light. It was a beautiful sight, like fireflies. Small glitch, the lights came back on and the crowd went crazy! We were invested in the story from the very start. The show had everything, it was comedic, silly, serious, festive, covered injustices, Bantu education, unrest, sexual assault, apartheid and death. Crocodile is so mischievous! He physically beat his classmates to be Nelson Mandela. His classmates still picked Sarafina, a girl, to be Nelson Mandela. Being the strongest doesn’t always produce the desired effect. So in love with mistress, she teaches her classes with complete conviction, the students trust and respect her. When she performed in that red dress it was as if I were struck by cupid’s arrow.

This is a large ensemble and everyone is important. Some of the names in the production are Noxolo Dlamini, Hlengiwe Pearl and Busisiwe Mhlanga.

Nompumelelo Gumede-Ngema provided the choreography.

Sarafina is the greatest theatrical production of all time. It’s a complete theatrical experience. Thank you to the visionary, an absolute Legend, Mbongeni Ngema for his genius. Thank you to the exceptional performers who gave everything to bring the story alive. SamSays on the credits.

Congratulations Mpho Molepo and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

📷: Dumakude Nxumalo

The black circus of the republic of Bantu

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The black circus of the republic of Bantu

Just when you think you have seen it all, something you haven’t seen before strikes you on the head to remind you that you haven’t seen anything!

At the Market Theatre for the opening of “The black circus of the republic of Bantu”. The energy and feeling is different, certainly nothing you have seen before. Before we stepped in the auditorium, our hands (the audience) was tied with a string. Something ancestral and ritualistic about the act. Soon as you entered the auditorium, the whole place reeked of incense. A solitary figure, big and heavy, dressed in all black was the source. The seating arrangement was also different. We had 3 sitting banks located against the walls, if you wanted a seat, you can sit but the majority were sitting on the floor. The set up was like a catwalk and a large screen served as the backdrop. Before the show commenced, the performer shared snuff and coarse salt with the audience and then he stripped completely naked and started interacting and dancing with the audience, instructing audience members to touch him and participate. He was in his birthday suit. It was peculiar. He was dancing completely naked, undisturbed, undeterred, balls hanging like a piñata to Maskandi music while the audience cheered him on.

The show is inclusive and encourages the audience to get involved. On the performers cue we were signaled to stand-up, sit down, echo the performers words and sing. Four participants from the crowd were selected to be in the show. They were given beastly costumes and instructed to dance, while the performer barked orders with his whip. The scene is exploitative and uncomfortable. The image of Sarah Baartman is a constant in the show. The show pays homage to figures like Sarah Baartman whose bodies where fetishized and deemed to be of a different species by colonizers. The show is about pride and empowerment.

Albert Ibokwe Khoza is the performer leading procedures. He is fearless, vivacious, colorful, creative and authentic. A lot of personality and flavor. He completely and utterly shocked me to my core, no hyperbole, I have never seen performance arts like that before!

The giant screen provided commentary and shared personal insights. The visuals are cinematic, artistic and bold.

Congratulations Princess Mhlongo and the whole team for an interesting show, certainly different and completely unapologetic.

Peacock

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Peacock

I’ve never been attracted to you my whole life. I am flattered, but not in this life. You need to stop masquerading as my wife. Move along and find someone who will take you as a wife. You deterring the ladies who have a chance, so slanderous your stories and they starting to spread rife. Hate to be the bearer of bad news but you ain’t my type. Maybe the blade is in too deep but it’s only because it’s a knife. You don’t get this enough but I’ve never been attracted to you my whole life. I am a popular guy and I have some options, you’re the kid in the corner who never gets adopted. You’re a special kid but this ain’t a contest. You just don’t fit the requirements to take the test. What can I say? Okay fine, I’ll hear you out, give you the chance to work your magic, run the catwalk, the expedition don’t need to be tragic. But at the end of the day I have to be honest, I’ve never been attracted to you my whole life. You’re a good kid, pretty smile, find you a good guy who won’t mind walking the extra mile. I am looking the other way, it’s a bye. I’ve never been the guy to sustain a lie. You’re too mellow and yellow, can’t reach my level so a collaboration is a hello no! Good presentation, a wonderful try but I have to be honest, I’ve never been attracted to you my whole life. I walk naked in the gyms locker room to intimidate other guys with my massive cock, not just another Peacock. One night with me would surely rock, but you a nerd and I am a jock. Move over for the ladies who actually have a chance, I’ve never been attracted to you my whole life.

Graveland

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Graveland

At the Market Theatre to watch “Graveland”. Social commentary, reflecting life back at us. Heartfeltingly moving, poignant, tragic. A story of love, hate, injustices, grudges that never get mended, characters who are bitter and unjustlyingly so. Two stories, two perspectives, you can emphatize with both scenarios, unhealed trauma, life goes on.

A story of a foreign national who one day gets a promotion at work. The natives are jealous, angry and offended. They won’t take orders from “ikwerekwere”. The disrespect is evident, so the foreign manager gets the natives axed from work and hires a brother. Chaos ensures, they stone his brother to death and made him watch, he begged, he pleaded, he was at their mercy, the damned South Africans didn’t care, they wrapped a tyre around his torso and set it alight. He burned to ashes. The broken man returned home with his dead brother for ashes, contained in a cup that looks like a flusk, it’s not even a proper urn. The family are heartbroken, they plan an excursion to get back their lost ones soul in South Africa.

In South Africa, Mahikeng, they encounter a disagreeable, xenophobic cop who arrests them. He demands R8000 for ‘tjo tjo” bribe money, R2000 per person. The foreign nationals can’t do anything, worse is that one of them left a pregnant wife at home. The Cops hate comes from his experiences as an officer of the law. He is pro South African, that’s who he regards, he calls foreign nationals cocroaches. Hillbrow Central, his sister was killed by a foreign national. She was used, she was abused and she died. His brother, the cop, couldn’t do anything, investigations with dead-ends. He hates foreign nationals, very stereotypical, the jobs, women, drugs, we suffering too, stay in your own country, solve your own problems, we suffering too. Towards the conclusion, he shoots a man wanting to go home to his wife and kid. Another African child will grow up without a father.

Graveland poster

The show stars
Allen Cebekulu, Diane Maseko, Abongile Maurice, Dineo Sello, Thabiso Rammala, Confidence “Mamzo” Lokhele, Thokozani “zits” Maseko, Sinenhlanhla Mbeyi & Lunga Khuhlane.

Produced by: Relebohile Mabunda
Written & Directed by: Thembeni Joni & Lunga Khuhlane
Movement by: Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi
Production Designer: Sinenhlanhla Q. Zwane
Percussionist: Mongezi Yamba

Congratulations Lule Productions and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Babyface

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Babyface

Turning face, I want to be loved, admired, to be cheered by the fans, for them to sing my song. No more giving my attention to people who don’t deserve it. No more interacting with low-vibration people, they are dragging me down, the negative energy, it’s messing with my aura and affecting the trajectory of my progress. I am turning face, I want to be a star and an inspiration to all like the Brahma Bull. I want to be the guy who opens doors for coming generations. I want to inspire, no more excuses and a life of mediocrity, I want to grace covers of major magazines and appear on the big screen. Best in the world like CM Punk, CM Punk, CM Punk! No more giving my power to people who don’t deserve it. If I stay longer then I am paid less, so let’s decrease the hours while maximizing on the quality. I am turning face, no more Mr. Bad guy, no more low-blows and you ain’t gotta acknowledge me anymore, just a fair and honest fight and if I lose, I accept. I am turning face, I am the good guy now, YEAH, I want to be cheered by the fans, I want them to sing my song. I have integrated my shadow and motherfuckers know better than to take me on, cause I don’t back down and I deliver my receipt with conviction. I am turning face, hustle, loyalty and respect like Cena, time to appeal to the broader audience, make them believe in a hero, make them believe in dreams, cause anything is possible, you just need to keep pressing. I am turning face, I want to be a role model to millions of people, instill good values, teach good morals and ethics, to be a good person. Yes, assholes still exist but I am better equipped to deal with them, I’ll kick their ass while pandering to the audience because I am a master of showmanship now. YEAH! I am turning face, because no one could displace me at the top as a heel, I’ve been carrying the show alone and I need some connection. I am turning face and that’s the bottomline cause I said so. Having beer bashes with the fans like Stone Cold Steve Austin. Turning face cause I need to be relatable to the crowd. Turning face cause I need a different crowd. Turning face, I want to be cheered by the fans, I want them to sing my song.

The Last Country

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The Last Country

At the Market Theatre to watch “The Last Country”. Different set-up to what we  accustomed to, talk about inclusion and intimacy. We were secluded all together, in a square-rectanglist pattern, that was the formation of the seating arrangement, that was the stage, we were literally in the play, the performers were with us! Great work by Empatheatre! The show is empathetic, we had to listen to the woman’s struggles, pains, dreams and misfortunes. The Zimbabwean woman studying for her PhD and is met with miserable stances as she navigates the world. The woman selling on the streets without permits colliding with the police resulting in the confiscation of goods, now you can’t sell anything, you are hungry. You go at it tomorrow, same place, same style, because what’s the alternative, life goes on, a permit is R900 a year, just ask the street vendors, nothing is for free. I love the street vendors dreams, she sells bead apparel, she wants to build a house.

The Last Country
smart

The Last Country is an immersive and deeply moving theatre piece exploring the stories of migrant women. Through the stories of Ofrah from the DRC, MaThwala from Ndwedwe in KwaZulu-Natal, Aamiina from Somalia, and Aneni from Zimbabwe, the audience is intimately immersed into experiences of leaving home and arriving in a South African city, KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. The script carefully weaves together experiences of struggle, pain, humour, hope and resilience in ways that surface our shared humanity, and how the smallest acts of kindness can support and transform the experiences of those seeking sanctuary in our cities.

The play features an all-star cast, that includes Mpume Mthombeni, Faniswa Yisa, Andile Vilakazi and Nompilo Maphumulo, it is an experience. The actors are amazing! They are talking to us directly, eye-ball to eye-ball, you feel them, you understand their pain and struggles, home affairs and their weak system, you wake up early and even that is not a guarantee of anything. They send you back to Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe sends you back.

After the show, we had a QandA session, we explored the show, we got to reflect about the show, discuss issues, deliver commentry, the audience got involved, it was a wonderful experience. I met a girl who is a writer, got short-listed for the DALRO Can Themba Merit Award for her short story, she chose sci fi  for her genre, she is beautiful. I submitted “ADULTERY” they went silent, I understand.

Congratulations Neil Coppen and Empatheatre for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

MANTSOPA

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MANTSOPA

At the Market Theatre to watch the highly acclaimed play “Mantsopa” by Dr. Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha. The scenery was so cool, the majority of people had on their traditional attire, they donned blankets wrapped around their shoulders. You could feel the spirit of the Basotho people. The dialogue between people was also in Sesotho, the demographic was well represented. This is such a great show! So original and authentically African. I love the Market Theatre because it tells our stories. Last thing I said after the bow was “wow”, it was the general consensus, it induces goosebumps.

Mantsopa, whose grave lies at Modderpoort in the eastern Free State, was born in 1793 and died in 1908. A survivor of famine and subsequent cannibalism, she grew to become a trusted advisor to King Moshoeshoe I, correctly predicting victorious battle outcomes for Basotho against colonial settlers and speaking truth to power with unshaking honesty. She was a prophet, a seer with incredible foresight to predict the future accurately. This foresight led people into thinking that she was a witch with extraterrestrial powers! She lived to be a 111 years old, living across three centuries.

The story follows fictitious great granddaughter Tholoana who has inherited the gift of song. Rejecting her calling, she gets an opportunity to work at club in the city as a singer. She runs from herself. Tholoana’s attitude towards this calling and gift is one of derision. She doesn’t want the gift, she doesn’t want the fame, she’d rather be a psychologist, studying other people’s minds instead. In the city, things don’t go according to script. Despite her best efforts, she is rejected. Her suitor from her village in Lesotho who is smitten by her comes along and attempts to put her in alignment with who she really is – the great granddaughter of Mantsopa and the chosen one. Following her rejection, he succeeds and Tholoana embraces her calling, her destiny. The story features music and dance. The live band curate the story through unique instruments that produce sound effects that mimic nature, birds, rain, the band are a constant fixture of the show. They provide depth and feeling to the show. The performers were outstanding, performing with feeling and conviction. They inhabited the characters they were playing. They were relatable and the interactions between the characters was naturalistic and free-flowing. The set is just gorgeous! I loved the poetry. I loved everything.

The actors
Florence Masebe
Leomile Motsetsela
Tseko Monaheng
Itumeleng Mofokeng
Lebohang Banyane

Music Director and Keyboardist
Mawande Stuurman

Percussionist and Drummer
Godfrey Mgcina

Vocalist
Nomhle Pearl Nongogo

Costumes and Props designer
Sinenhlanhla Zwane

Lighting designer
Nomvula Molepo

Congratulations Dr. Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

📷: Naomi Mokhele
📷: SamSays

A dolls house pt. 2

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A dolls house Pt. 2

On the square for the opening of a dolls house pt. 2. Full house, the place is buzzing and excitement is in the air. Nothing is better than a filled up theatre on the square, the energy is contagious. It’s close knit, intimate and warm. The laughs rebound and echo in the auditorium, you can hear every sound, every gasp, every comment from the audience and the view is in your face, up close and personal, no matter which seat you take. Every seat is a great seat, even the seats close to the pillars.

The show is a great one, it captivated the audience throughout. It’s humorous and explores subjects on self-identity, marriage, traditional gender roles, love and freedom. Nora Helmer comes back after 15 years to the family she abandoned in search of herself. Not much has changed except that the children have grown. The helper (Anne Marie) stepped up in her absence and raised them, neglecting her own life and children in the process. It’s not like she had a choice, she’s not from money, she had to do whatever she could to survive. Nora became a successful author in that period, writing books that serves mainly the female demographic. She questions the institution of marriage and monogamy. Is it worth it? Does it make sense? Why is one partner enough for a lifetime? Surely, I am not the person you married because I’ve changed, you have changed. I am reduced to a role and expectations and I am not myself anymore. I don’t even know who I am anymore, I am subsumed by your domineering character. When relationships start out, it’s all fresh, it’s new, it’s exciting, we go out of our way to woe the other person, we role play, we do things that we will never do again to gain access into that person’s life and once we do, we relax, we become complacent, we stop trying so hard, the relationship stales up and we lose ourselves.

It is this type of writing that gets Nora in trouble with the law. It is this type of writing that empowers her female readers to leave their families. She also finds out that she is still married with her husband, she initially thought she was divorced but her husband didn’t post the paperwork. She wants a divorce but her husband Torvald won’t give it to her. She involves her daughter, hoping that she can convince her father. Eventually he relents and gives it to her but she doesn’t want it anymore.

This is a awesome play, it had the audience laughing out loud, there were also ironic stares from the cast to the audience, breaking the fourth wall, at times it was as if they were talking to us directly. Some uncomfortable laughs from the audience because of the realism of the content. There was range and different states in the performances. The performers had chemistry and overall flow – they were outstanding! The costumes were retro, they gave a 1800 – 1900 vibe. The story is perfectly paced and the scenes clear. The set, writing and lighting – all great!

Bianca Amato plays Nora
Zane Meas is Torvald
Charlotte Butler is Anne Marie
Simone Neethling is Emmy

Congratulations Barbara Rubin and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation!

The good white

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The good white

Opening of “The good White” at the Market Theatre. I love the Market Theatre, the place was vibrant and buzzing. Even posed for a couple of pictures – press time.

A different perspective to the #feesmustfall and #rhodesmustfall movements. The story follows Professor Simon Whitehead, a senior ranking official of the University, his Zimbabwean colleague who plans to launch his book on Decolonization and his colored wife who also holds a high position at the University. It is set in a world of unrest and desolation, a world where the youth feel betrayed by the current system and the leaders that preceded it. Nelson Mandela preached “rainbownism”, he didn’t change anything, the systems of apartheid are still in place. Apartheid still roams but in a different form, with new and fancy terminologies. While real people still suffer, inequality rife and students can’t afford schooling. Everything is blamed on the white man; the patriarchy, apartheid, inequality, racism, no access to education – all him! It is a world that unsympathetic to the white man, it is even played for comic relief and features as a running gag, you’ll hear Simon saying “the white man has no feelings, everything is his fault” as a way to defuse the tension. It is a world that keeps kicking Professor Simon Whitehead in the head. He is in a cold, loveless and detached relationship with a woman who cheats on him with his Zimbabwean colleague. For the woman, the relationship is purely transactional, white man married to a colored woman, diversity, it’s good for PR. She won’t even say “I love you”, instead she says “do you need me to love you”? Eventually, they separate.

This is a brilliant play, the writing by Mike van Graan is the hero and the acting just world-class. The show has a lot, the characters have personality and the script wit. Shonisani Masutha is powerful, I loved her poetry and the emotion in her words. She plays a character from the township whose parents are deseased. She is angry and in protest – she demands change! Renate Stuurman plays the wife, she is harsh and insensitive at times, very antagonistic, could be because of her past, apartheid, her family was moved from Wynberg to the Cape Flats. Vusi Kunene plays the Zimbabwean colleague, his book launch is hilarious, it was chaos, there was protesting and the township girl undressed in front of everyone. Russel Savadier is Professor Simon Whitehead – I just felt sorry for the white man.

The scenes and the lighting are seamless and just flow. Totally loved the set, it is subtle, minimalistic and compact with three stages all in all, one to the left, one to the right and one in the middle that has retractable seats that can be pushed back inside. Hovering above the middle stage are signs that demand:

Decolonize education
Free quality education

feesmustfall

Education is not a privilege
Senzeni Na
Fees with what money
Asinamali
Free education is possible

Congratulations Greg Homann and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Hidden giants

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Hidden giants

If only schools taught physics like the “Hidden giants” lecture. An out the box lecture with live original score by composer Yasheen Modi who plays the piano and violinist Siobhan Lloyd-Jones. The sound is immersive and the visuals by Darius Botha cinematic and bold. That lecture is so cool, it is an experience, it has life, it has feeling, it’s the type of show that makes you fall in love with science. Science for me at school was never that cool, if it were, I’d have a PhD in Physics. That’s how good I feel about Physics and the Universe right now!

Dr. Luca Pontiggia serves at the lecturer for the show. He simplifies the Universe for the common man. He makes it fun and strips away all the fear factor. It’s not intimidating, the visuals on the screen paint a picture, they tell a story. We learned so much about the nature of the Universe, it’s inception, how old it is and how it expanded. We learned about Isaac Newton and the gravitational force. We learned about Albert Einstein and the theory of relativity. We learned about Black holes, spacetime and the singularity. Black holes are dead stars that are dense who pull in everything in their orbit and Supanovas are exploding stars! The lecture is divided into 3 acts: The object, the minds and the image.

Act 1 explores the cycle of stars and violent forces that give birth to black holes. Act 2 explores the great thinkers like Newton and Einstein who conceived of these mathematical formulas that enabled a better understanding of our Universe. Act 3 is proof, Einstein’s theory of relativity is just that – theory. We need tangible evidence of a black hole, E.H (Event Horizon), Accretion Disc, Photon Sphere and the Singularity. Unbelievably, we get proof, we have a picture, Albert Einstein was right. We get this proof with the of help from lasers, telescopes stationed strategically all over the world, a dedicated team and supercomputers. This picture is everything, it’s a scientific leap, proof of the Universe and existence, something to build on in our understanding of string-theory and perhaps the big bang itself.

This is such a cool lecture, something you can watch over and over again. Pity it has a limited run at Joburg Theatre, everyone should see it – it has a lot of enthusiasm, the theatre was filled to the brim, literally every seat was occupied. The teaching is world-class and the music – out of this world! You don’t want it to end, you just want to learn and learn and learn. They made Physics and the Universe really cool.