“In the beginning...” responds storyteller and director, Cape Town-based Thando Doni, when asked about the award- winning production, Mhla Salamana (When Our Eyes Meet), which will be staged at the Soweto Theatre from March 3 to 22.
But seriously, it was a few years back and they were a group of four young actors who wanted to tell a story about love. “It is essentially a love story,” he says.
You have a near-perfect, loving relationship which goes completely wrong for the couple, Melikhaya (Mkhuseli Richard Tafane) and Zanele (Asanda Rilityana). The affection they have for each other and their child Olwethu (Aphiwe Menziwa) cannot withstand the weight of infidelity. Eventually their home and marriage crumble under the pressure of infidelity.
It seemed to them at the time, that they were living in a world where relationships easily evaporate. “It’s become too simple,” says Doni. “Some of our parents have split, but many are still together.” It is these vanishing values that they are questioning and seeking to find a balance in a world that moves too fast on every level.
But when you look at everything they’re working with, it is about the way they tell the story, rather than the story itself, that pushes boundaries. Doni is a theatre maker who likes the input of his cast and uses physical theatre, poetry and, as with this production, introduced the sounds of an a capella group, Muziek Sensation. “They had never worked theatrically before, but we knew we wanted music,” he explains. The music and these six bodies on stage bring another dimension.
Physical theatre has also always influenced him as a student and, more recently a teacher at Cape Town’s Magnet Theatre, the way he works is close to what he would have experienced in this milieu of working with movement as much as with words.
But that’s also why the fact that Mhla Salamana is in Xhosa isn’t a problem. “You don’t need the language at all,” he says. “The music and the body language tell enough of the story.” He’s determined to develop a kind of theatre language where he uses his own tongue yet embraces an audience who might not be familiar with the lingo. “We played at The Market… and few in the audience were Xhosa-speaking, but they got it,” he says.
Talking about his theatre career, it has been an enchanted one with first a nomination as Best Director in 2011 at the Baxter’s Zabalaza Festival , to winning the same festival with this production in 2012 in all the following categories: Best Director; Best Actor; Best Musical Director, Best Production, Best Actress; Best Supporting Actor and Best Script.
Doni’s career, short as it still is, has been marked by opportunities and bursaries and he’s nominated for a Fleur du Cap Young Director’s Award for Passage, but he’s also the kind of artist who grabs every opportunity and takes others along with him. “I like telling stories together with other people,” he says. “It’s about communicating and talking to one another.”
Then he uses his actors and especially their bodies to tell stories. “Actions speak louder than words.”
And when language comes into play, he urges playwrights to use indigenous languages.
He thinks people are lazy and can find ways of getting the message across and when you tell your stories in your mother tongue, there’s a clarity of thought. “It’s important to find our own voices.”
With no artists in his family, he doesn’t really understand how he landed on this particular stage. “I sucked at maths,” is his best explanation, but having found his passion, he is enchanted that he’s the one telling stories. “It’s a calling,” he says.
• Shows: 11am & 8pm Thurs to Sat, Sun 3pm at the Soweto Theatre, March 3 to 22. Ticket prices: R50 adults, R30 students.