Prestwich Place in Green Point has long been a subject of class and racial conflict in the Western Cape.
Once a burial ground, it included a large number of unmarked graves of freed slaves. In the early part of the 19th century it was sub-divided and sold, and became part of the developed urban core of the Cape, giving way, years later in the 1960s, to forced removals where blacks and coloureds were shunted off to the inhospitable Cape Flats.
A huge furore erupted in 2003 when, during construction for an exclusive development, the bones and remains of slaves and washerwomen and other descendants were discovered. Amidst huge debate, the remains were ceremonially relocated to the mortuary at the Woodstock Day Hospital. In the meantime, development continued in the area, with the construction of The Rockwell, an upmarket residential development.
It is one of the aspects of land debate that inspired award-winning writer Nadia Davis to script her latest play What Remains, which débuted at the National Arts festival this week and moves to Cape Town, and will be performed from July 6 to 12 at Hiddingh Hall, Orange Street.
Davids, who grew up in Cape Town, received her doctorate from UCT for her thesis “Inherited Memories; Performing the Archive”, which explored the history, memory and trauma of forced removals from District Six under the Group Areas Act, through the lens of performance.
Speaking to Davids before the show launched in Grahamstown, she said that the discovery of the bones raised a number of issues for her and it was actually only a decade after the discovery that she realised how crucial it was.
“I was so deeply intrigued when the bones came to the surface,” she said adding, “it raised in me a creative rather than an analytical response. It also raised the issue of reinterment so that dignity could be restored; this when the developers wanted to move full steam ahead.”
She says, “It was the spoken but not specifically the main motivation for writing What Remains.
“There are cities that have very dark places - and we can also ask ourselves, who speaks for the dead? Places like Prestwich Place and District Six can be regarded as an unfinished part of our social heritage. It’s an extraordinarily interesting question thinking about the social justice of what happens in these areas and also goes right to the heart of what the city is about.”
Davids admits she was busy writing a novella about the subject but when she took it to Jay Pather, who directs, they decided it would be well suited to performing on stage.
It has changed considerably to become what it is, says Davids and adds she wanted to put the message across strongly, in a different way, of how iniquitous the issue of forced removal was and the lack of dignity of moving ancestral remains.
“Some histories are so unspeakable and we thought we’d rather let the body speak through dance. Shaun Oelf, is the dancer and his movements are beautiful, acting as both solitary and communal. And the relationship between the text of the play and the movement is amazing.”
The drama was described as having a “theatrical dream team” which, aside from Pather directing and Oelf dancing, includes Denise Newman, Faniswa Yisa and Buhle Ngaba. Original choreography is also by Pather.
Between Pather and Davids, the pair have created what Davids describes as a captivating fusion of text, dance and movement to tell the story of a city haunted by the memory of slavery. “When the bones emerge everyone - slave descendants, archaeologists, residents and property developers - is forced to reckon with their history.
Davids says, “It takes one on a journey of the uncanny and the known, between waking and dreaming. Four figures - The Archaeologist, The Healer, The Dancer and The Student - move between bones and books, archives and madness, as they try to reconcile the past with the now.
“Slavery in the Cape is a history full of silence and unresolved sorrow. And unresolved histories have a way of making themselves known. It is a play about how history erupts and disrupts the present.”
Davids adds she’s always admired Pather’s work and how, in a provocative way, he forges connections and relationships between landscapes, the body, place and agency.
Pather in turn says, “Nadia’s writing vividly transports us through multiple times and spaces, capturing the vertigo that characterises living in South Africa today.
This ebb and flow of memory, moving back and forth from the aching - resurging the past and the turbulent present - allows us
a way to look at the complexity of the modern moment with fresh lenses.
“The elegance, weight and precision of the text reads like a choreography. In this sense, I thrived on the endless possibilities for imagery and kinetic connections.”
* For more on the Grahamstown festival run go to www.nationalartsfestival.co.za
‘What Remains’ will be performed from July 6 to July 12 at 8pm (with a matinee on Saturday, July 8 at 2pm and a performance on Sunday, July 9 at 6pm) at Hiddingh Hall. There is parking available next to the venue. Age advisory is 10 years and older.
Tickets cost R120 and can be booked at Webtickets
www.webtickets.co.za