DIANE DE BEER
‘If we don’t tell the stories of our time, whose history does it become?” That’s poet, playwright and director, Napo Masheane, speaking while preparing for her first play on the Market’s John Kani Stage.
It’s also the first time a black woman has been given the opportunity to present her work as director in this space. “It’s a huge responsibility,” she says.
She takes her work seriously and especially her moment in time. “If I mess up, it’s more than just about this play. Things are moving and shifting and I want to be part of that change,” she explains, as she talks about her dream, which has now become a communal dream with her cast, many of whom were students she taught at the Drama Department of UP as a guest lecturer. Even when writing, she had already imagined who she was writing for. “Even if I didn’t have the money to pay them, these are the people I wanted to cast,” she says.
Her personal dream started when she was sweeping this exact stage as an intern many years ago, dreaming about one day telling her own stories. “I know I am paving the way for youngsters like me. Everything matters,” she adds as an aside about her past life and how it has impacted on what is happening in a week’s time on the Market stage.
A roving director for the Royal Court, Elyse Dawson was the one who literally dragged Masheane into the programme.
“We had been telling her our stories as someone who travels around the world to develop storytellers who could eventually end up at the Royal Court in London,” says Masheane. But when they had to enter their stories for further development, Masheane had lost confidence, was too busy and also happened to be six months pregnant.
Dawson wanted her voice represented and they promised her the earth, moon and stars, including creating an environment that would be comfortable for her. Hers was obviously a story that had to be heard.
It all lies in the title, A New Song. The piece was inspired by her grandmothers, domestic workers who struggled to provide education for their children so that they could break the domestic cycle. Masheane settled on the 1956 women’s march to metaphorically celebrate the faceless who participated and died in the struggle to give their children and grandchildren freedom.
“We need to honour that freedom,” she says, “it was hard fought.” She watches in disdain as people disregard the past and what was fought for. “We need to tell the stories,” she emphasises and repeats time and again like a refrain. It is her new song.
“We must speak out. We are told not to complain, not to be loud, but it is the system we’re fighting. How can we pick up the baton if we don’t pay our dues?”
A New Song represents two generations talking – grandmothers and their children’s children. “We have to stay the course and honour their hard work,” she says. “We could have been babysitting now.”
She’s telling her story with music and song because she knows this will resonate.
“I’m dipping into the past for those nostalgic moments, the songs people will recognise,” she says. But she picked them specifically and researched why a Miriam Makeba, for example, wrote a specific song.
Her singers are a surprise (considering she is honouring women): she introduces a five-man a capella group, Beyond Vocal, to add an underbelly to the singing. “I knew I wanted something different and I have often used them for my poetry performances.”
Her cast includes Sibulele Gcilitshana (So What’s New, Z’bondiwe, Generations, Soul City, Translation, Thami Baleka (Ways Of Dying, Z’bondiwe, Isidingo, A Street Car Named Desire), Jana Oosthuizen, Lichelelle Lerm, Pearl Noxolo Monama, Naledi Mabeleng, Vernicha Coetzee and Aneshree Paul. Together they weave a lasting theatrical tapestry on stage.
Masheane also takes the narrative further visually, with artist Mary Sibande’s image of the life-sized sculpture, They Don’t Make Them Like Used To, in her cover art, which was made available courtesy of Gallery MOMO. How could she not? Like Sibande’s work, A New Song uses domestic work to explore feminine struggles in a post- democratic dispensation.
This might be her first time on that stage telling her story, but she’s determined that what she wants to say will be heard.
The Market Theatre in association with Village Gossip Productions present A New Song from October 28 to November 1.