Diane de Beer
MARIKANA – The Musical opens at the State Theatre after a run at the National Arts Festival earlier this year when the start of the production was marred by a late arrival because of the breakdown of transport on the way to the City of Angels.
But they got on to the stage, if late, with the musical by Aubrey Sekhabi, an adaptation from the book We are Going to Kill Each Other Today – The Marikana Story, by Felix Dlangamandla, Thanduxolo Jika, Lucas Ledwaba, Sebabatso Mosamo, Athandiwe Saba and Leon Sadike.
Now it has returned to its roots, The State Theatre’s Drama. It is described as a blow-by-blow account of what happened when the miners downed tools on August 9, 2012. That fateful day is explained by Ledwaba as follows: “Tomorrow morning the men will sing again. Their spears, pangas, inculas and sticks will clatter menacingly. They will recite battle cries from their homelands and move about in organised columns, raising clouds of dust. But 34 of them will sing for the very last time.”
On August 16, 2012, after a standoff of several days, the South African Police Service opened fire on the mineworkers armed with traditional weapons, who had gathered on a koppie at Marikana in the Northwest Province in defiance of their employer and their trade union. The ensuing massacre made headlines and shocked the world.
The cast is led by Meshack Mavuso, Aubrey Poo, Segomotso Modise, Emma Mmekwa and includes a supporting cast of more than 18. The company also includes the musical director, Mpho “Mckenzie” Matome, choreographer Thabo Rapoo, lighting and set designer Wilhelm Disberger and costume designer Irene Mathe.
Two preview performances will be staged tomorrow and on Thursday, the opening is on Friday night with a run that concludes on October 19.
Two more plays will also be opening in two other theatre venues in the State Theatre the following week, including Another Time which deals with the difficult topic of retrenchment, diversity and transformation in South Africa. It attempts to provide insight into the effect it has on the employer and employee’s life, relationships and their take on our country. It’s a story for anyone who has ever experienced a challenging time in their career – a time where you are left desperate, despondent, confused, angry and anxious. It will speak to most working people who are affected by these horrors at some stage in their working life.
Zane Meas and Carmin Coetzer are directed by Dirk Stoltz who is best known for his role as Stefan Ferreira in the SABC2 series Erfsondes. He has been working in local television, theatre and cinema since the early 1990s, starring in many local productions. As a director he has worked mainly in the corporate and industrial theatre industries.
Meas is a force in the local acting community. He is perhaps best known for his role Neville Meintjies in the popular soap 7de Laan and Coetzer is familiar from Scandal to Villa Rosa, as Marla in Rhythm City, from Isidingo as well as Binnelanders. She also stars in Pad na jou Hart.
With a preview performance on October 9, the run officially starts on October 10 and ends on October 19 at the Arena Theatre.
And finally there’s the story of Happy Sindane. Remember the child who walked into the police station in Bronkhorstspruit, in early 2003, announcing that he was a white boy who had been abducted by a black family into a life of slavery in the township? His story grabbed the local and international press and public’s attention and ran riot for a few years.
Sindane’s bizarre story and his search for his real parents was never off the front pages around the world. It all seemed too bizarre to wrap around your head. Was he really a white child who was abducted from a life of luxury and safety in the white suburbs of Pretoria? Sadly, in April last year, Sindane’s stoned-to-death body was found in a ditch a few hundred metres from where he lived, after a meaningless brawl with a local resident in the township. In the end, it was simply a sad life which seemed to have had its five minutes of fame before it all burnt away.
Featuring last year’s South African India Film and Television Awards-nominated Best Film Actor, Jarrid Geduld of the films A Boy Called Twist , The Flyer and the recent A Lucky Man, Happy’s story is told from his point of view as he returns to his little blue room in the backyard of where he once lived in Twee-fontein township, thinking back on the events leading up to his decision to announce himself as a “white boy” and the heart- rending, yet humorous journey of his desire to belong somewhere that he felt would matter.
As with most things in this country, it’s a story that says as much about the society as the man.
Happy, which also opens on October 10 and ends October 19 in the Momentum, is directed by Charles J Fourie and was staged at the National Arts Festival. All three productions run Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm. Book at Computicket.