THULA THULA
DIRECTOR/WRITER: Mxolisi Masilela
CAST: Happy Kgafela, Mongezi Mabunda, Oupa Malatjie, Alfred Motlhapi, Micca Manganya, Itumeleng Rhonah Moeketsi
Venue: Barney Simon at the Market Theatre
UNTIL: Sunday
RATING: 3 stars (out of 5)
Diane de Beer
A rape every 26 seconds is what the statistics say about this horrific crime that affects mainly young girls and women in this country.
Not that we hear too much about it when you keep that appalling fact in mind and the way rape changes a life dramatically, especially in a country where the norm about sexual violence and abuse is silence.
“Don’t shame the family” is what the victim is often told as they themselves struggle with the guilt that this happened to them.
In this 2014 Zwakala festival winner, it is that silence that is first addressed in this powerful piece about a girl’s life of terror at a time when she should be discovering the innocent joys of womanhood.
“Silence breeds violence” is the rallying cry that bookends this story of a young pupil who is betrayed by everyone around her at a time when she is easily swayed by compliments or authority. If your livelihood depends on someone’s goodwill, where do you turn for help when they become abusive?
It is this lack of options available to someone so vulnerable that makes the abuse even more terrifying. But it seems just going by the number of theatre productions, movies and a hard-hitting book titled Rape by Pumla Dineo Gqola who argues strongly that we have to change the narrative in this country, that South Africans are starting to speak out – loudly. If we keep blaming the victims while allowing the perpetrators to walk away, it sends the wrong message about everyone involved as well as the kind of society we live in.
That’s why this is such an important work by young voices, (written in this instance by a man) about a problem that mainly affects women.
It is beautifully and creatively staged with buckets as the metaphor for a young girl’s innocence, while music (percussionist playing throughout), dancing and song all add to the storytelling in imaginative fashion.
The text is 80 percent in vernacular which meant I had to navigate my way through the basics of the message, while missing most of the nuance which plays an important role in this one.
It is about time that rape and abuse become a national priority which have to be fought on every platform. It’s also important that woman take back the power.
The three men represented in this piece all play a part in breaking down the heroine and it is the young Sunshine who’s perhaps the most problematic as he sends her scuttling into the arms of others while he wants to be more than a friend and isn’t emotionally mature enough to cope with the rejection yet also turns out to be her “protector” in the end. What about women doing it for themselves? Isn’t that in the end the only power that will work here?
As a whole, though, it’s a piece that is fighting for change, it is of our time and it is telling the story of something that needs the spotlight of the stage as part of the strategy to end the deafening silence.