Madonna of Excelsior
Director: Roel Twijnstra
Cast: Diana Maseko, Dieketseng Mnisi, Nic Beukes, Stephanie Brink, Matshidiso Thinyane, Mpho Lovinga, Philisiwe Sithole, Madge Ntamo, Marli van der Bijl and chorus
VENUE: Transnet Great Hall
RATING: ****
HISTORY has taken centre stage at the National Arts Festival since it opened last week, with a number of productions engaging with the past to produce some wonderful re-tellings of events.
One such production is Madonna of Excelsior, Kobus Moolman’s adaptation of Zakes Mda’s award-winning novel of the same name.
The production revisits events in 1971 when 19 black women from Excelsior in the Free State were arrested and charged for breaking the Immorality Act which, under the apartheid regime, banned interracial sex.
Kudos to directors Roel Twijnstra and Jerry Pooe, and the spirited cast, whose execution had the audience hooked from the start.
The play opens when the cast – who are sitting among the audience, unbeknown to them – burst into song, led by Marli van der Bijl, whose tiny frame is deceiving because this young woman packs a powerful vocal range.
The story begins at Excelsior City Hall where the audience becomes a fly on the wall in a heated city council meeting. The first black mayor is about to be voted in, but not without resistance from an old-school white councilman who is also in the running.
A heated exchange leads to the spotlight focusing on Popi (Diana Maseko, pictured), a 24-year-old woman who is haunted by skeletons in her family closet and secrets from her past that she wants revealed.
Taunted over the years and teased for being a “boesman” (coloured), Popi finds herself desperately wanting to know who her real father is. In the face of her mother’s reluctance to reveal secrets from the past, Popi embarks on her own mission to uncover the truth.
The trick to productions based on historical events is to ensure the audience doesn’t feel as if it is in a history class. And Madonna of Excelsior steers well clear of this by relaying the story of these women on a very personal level.
Whether it is Popi in search of her identity, or the black women of Excelsior who slept with white men from the area who are telling their stories, you are able to identify and sympathise with them.
These women were considered harlots, but when you hear their stories you’re able to respect that, for them, it was a matter of survival.
Equally so, as much as the play exposes the atrocity of white men not being held accountable, through the character of Stephanus (Nic Beukes) it allows you to tap into another aspect – that in some cases there may have been genuine connections between the men and women. This production portrays a historical event on stage, with Breandon Hewetson’s set design complementing the plot and a structure that allows for the story to flow easily.
The cast deserve praise for their outstanding performances in this a cappella drama. Maseko, Dieketseng Mnisi, Beukes, Matshidiso Thinyane, Philisiwe Sithole, Madge Ntamo and Van der Bijl deserve special mention for their passionate portrayals of their characters, some of which had me on the verge of tears.
A warning to the sensitive, though: this is a no-holds-barred production, with racial slurs, some cussing and even a full-on nude scene, which is a bit of shocker, but I think it exposes the issues of the time in as raw a format as they actually were.
The audience rose to its feet for a well-deserved ovation.