It’s a bit like sitting in a tone poem with the words, dance, music and water all washing over and through you.
Close your eyes and hear the gregarious Njawu (Shabangu) welcoming travellers to this corner of Africa where he will show them the way – and depending on their nationality, that’s what he will share.
“I tell them what they want to hear,” he says smartly. That’s easily done when people from outside who have no inkling who you are, underestimate you as you play them, seemingly without guile.
You have to keep your ear on the ground and your mind tuned into this one because Foot has cunningly interwoven nuances and textures into this almost fable-like story of a family fighting for survival – all on different levels and from opposite vantage points.
Yet more than anything as the title suggests, it is about hope – specifically on the continent, in countries, among families and individuals. “I would die without hope,” says the narrator as he lists everyone and their visions of hope. John, the fisherman, views hope as a wish. Ruth, his wife, believes in hope of humility. Peter places his hope in the ancestors and Ruth’s brother Niara grapples with hope and then turns his back and runs away.
But it is in this small community of interwoven relationships that Foot takes a universal view as the story plays out on a small scale, but with a much wider reach.
The cast has been wisely chosen with Mncedisi mesmerising the opening night crowd to such an extent that he had to work hard to get them to listen as his tone became more serious with the progression of the story. But if anyone can do it…
He is the glue of the production, but there is also the likes of Job in a searing performance as the battered but blistering Ruth, Tindisa capturing the purposely blind yet proud patriarch, John, while Dikotla dictates as the brother who believes he knows best and heeds only his own advice. As Peter, Oelf tells his story in movement that sends the emotional intelligence soaring.
That, together with the evocative set, kicks all the senses into high alert and takes you to this evocative world where hope seems shattered yet not quite dimmed.
Fortunately, there will always be those whose spirit cannot be broken because they refuse to face defeat even with all the odds stacked against them. All of this plunges the depth and layers to what might come across as an oft-told fireside tale. It’s deceptively accessible.
Further heightening the emotional and experiential impact, there’s the music to remind you what might seem like a quietly gentle piece, is exactly the opposite. This is Foot as playwright and director. Don’t think she will let you off the hook so sweetly.
She has stacked all the cards deftly so that her story hits hard where it counts.