Festival showcases women in theatre

The annual Malibongwe Women in Theatre and Performance Festival will showcase three theatre pieces by Cape Town women at Magnet Theatre in Observatory.

This year’s provocative theatre pieces are by Lee Ann van Rooi, Indalo Stofile, and Qondiswa James with a featured performance by Babalwa Zimbini Makwetu. The theatre-makers are invited to create 20 minutes-long experimental theatre pieces under the theme Her Voice, Her Prophecy.

Body of Evidence, the flagship project by Mud&Fire Parables supported by Distell, will also be exhibited as part of the festival. This experimental digital project is a national campaign to stop gender-based violence and femicide.

Under the auspices of Malibongwe Women in Arts Project, the festival is a skills development and job creation project, says festival director Mandla Mbothwe. “The festival was started to recognise women in theatre who would normally be acknowledged only as performers.

“It identifies three women who lead multi-disciplinary performances and stages them in various communities in the Western Cape. Ngo kwenza nje siphuthuma udlwengulo lweNkumbulo, soyisa ubunxaxha,” explains Mbothwe.

“Each one of them has to identify a community centre and facilitate skills exchange workshops for interested youth. The idea is to promote inter-generational skills development between established women practitioners and emerging theatre directors, stage curators, sound and lighting technicians.”

This year, the productions draw inspiration from three public figures - Saartjie Baartman, Winnie Mandela and Miriam Makeba.

Lee Ann van Rooi’s Ma G, the gatekeeper is about a woman who stays at home. The character Ma G lives in a spiritual world away from the disturbance of modern life. “Ma G cannot go out shopping because the modern world is destruction to her calling. She is the gatekeeper for the souls who need to cross over.

The souls come calling any time and Ma G must be ready all the time”, explains van Rooi.

“Some souls are easy to let through, leaving behind joy and laughter. Others require Ma G’s energy to hold the darkness of their soul at bay so it can freely cross into the light, sometimes she wins, sometimes she cannot.” Van Rooi’s piece draws inspiration from Saartjie Baartman and she plays Ma G in this one-hander which she directs herself.

Indalo Stofile’s Abahambi deals with issues of healing in the post-Apartheid era. “For many decades unjust Apartheid laws separated communities and killed the spirit of love and ubuntu,” says Stofile. “Nothing much has changed to this day. We have to re-unite.”

Inspired by poet Dianna Ferrus’s ode to Saartjie Bartman I’ve Come To Take You Home, Abahambi is a story about women who have walked in a landscape of patriarchal conquest through history and how their spirits echo in the voices of women today.

An experimental stream of consciousness production, the work involves song, dance and poetry moving between isiXhosa and English text. At its core the production looks at reclamation of women’s historical memory so that black women may gain a deeper understanding of themselves today.

Cracking the Spine, a public art intervention is Qondiswa James’ work.

The award-winning theatre maker staged an intervention called A nation in mourning, ahead of State of the Nation Address outside the City Hall earlier this month.

In Cracking the Spine, she looks at the effects of urban gentrification in Cape Town and its traumatic dislocating of poor communities, dumping them in less resourced areas. She also deals with issues of lack of shelter and social housing, asking pivotal questions about “so-called homelessness”.

Cracking the Spine is directed by Thembela Madliki and will be showcased at the Observatory Square.

Babalwa Zimbini Makwetu, musical director of the Nguvu ya Mbegu Sonic Bridge, is this year’s featured artist.

The piece draws directly from the life of Enoch Mgijima and the Bulhoek Massacre of 1921. The work attempts to assist people to connect with their true selves, with the unseen, and to test the present world.

The shows will be staged on Saturday March 5, from 10am until 4pm.

Tickets cost R50 and an are available at Webtickets. For more information contact Luvuyo Kakaza on 060 960 8935 or on email luvuyo@ctma.co.za