Durban — The Durban University of Technology (DUT) second-year drama and production students are staging a new specially created production this week which looks at the notion of democracy and hope, After Isimangaliso (After the Miracle).
The production will be staged at the DUT Courtyard Theatre until Wednesday from 6pm. The production was created, devised and directed collaboratively by drama department head Dr Tanya van der Walt and senior lecturer Dr Tamar Meskin working with dance lecturer Mduduzi Mtshali and singing specialist Zenneth Cibane.
The production looks at South Africa’s recent past – the hope as we transitioned into democracy, and our grave disappointments 30 years on. It explores South Africa today and considers the possibility of daring for a better future, particularly for South Africa’s youth.
Typically, South Africa’s leaders have not taken the voices of the young people into account. The production challenges politicians and decision-makers to listen to the voices of future adults and future leaders.
After Isimangaliso has been created by workshopping ideas with the cast to use their voices and ideas in a dramatic way, presented through spoken word vignettes, poetry and creative writing; dance; movement, live original music; soundscapes; multimedia, song and humour.
Excerpts inspired by seminal works by Antjie Krog and Athol Fugard have been incorporated into the script, as well as material sourced from the archives of the Denis Hurley Centre.
Meskin and Van der Walt have previously collaborated on a range of productions in various genres, including Frontlines, Metamorphoses, Adam’s Rib, Blood Wedding, The House of Bernarda Alba, Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and most recently Abaminza: Dialogues with the Drowned – about the SS Mendi.
The production is part of the Challenging Indifference series looking at our indifference to democracy and social justice, hosted by the Denis Hurley Centre, Diakonia Council of Churches and DUT Drama.
“Challenging Indifference” was the theme of the annual Good Friday Service this year, which is being further unpacked in The Bridge – the time from Good Friday to our national elections on May 29. Each week The Bridge provides on-line prayerful and reflective material to help people get a theological perspective on some important topical issues.
Materials will be prepared by groups of churches around Durban and so will form a kind of virtual pilgrimage.
DUT Drama was involved in the Good Friday service and is collaborating with the Denis Hurley Centre with some site-specific drama pieces and coursework over the next few months.
The students are also volunteering at the centre, to get first-hand experience of some of the challenges faced by vulnerable members of society – homeless people, refugees, addicts and the poorest of the poor.
“We are challenging the indifference of arrogant political leaders, complacent religious leaders and lukewarm public, all of them too comfortable or too scared to respond to the injustice around them.
“It seems that challenges from 30 years ago are just as relevant today – and even more so in the run-up to an election that could be the most important for 30 years. Many are ambivalent about the universal right to vote that Archbishop Denis Hurley and others struggled for, for so long,” said Dr Raymond Perrier of the Denis Hurley Centre.
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Daily News