Durban - For uMlazi actress Mpume Mthombeni, who plays Agatha on e.tv’s Durban Gen, bringing her electrifying one-woman play Isidlamlilo (The Fire Eater) to Durban is like coming home.
The play tells, through frank, comic and captivating storytelling, the death-defying life story of Zenzile Maseko, a sixty-something Zulu grandmother who rents a cramped room in a Durban women’s hostel, and is haunted by her past working as an IFP assassin in the build-up to the 1994 elections.
The show, which premiered to rave reviews at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda this year, is performed by Mthombeni and co-scripted with theatre-maker Neil Coppen.
It is on at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre from November 4 to 9.
The Independent on Saturday spoke to Mthombeni about the harrowing role this week.
“It’s really important these stories come to Durban,” she said. “I don’t see this as a political play, but rather a play for healing. What happened in the ’80s; we haven’t healed. We haven’t sat down and said: ‘Let’s talk about what happened.’ We’ve got scars that haven’t healed and we’re still bumping them and scratching them all the time,” she says.
“These are true stories of what happened and how people were trained and what they did. In the case of Zenzile Maseko, her husband was necklaced in the ’80s. An IFP taxi boss tells her he had heard she was a strong woman, that he knew who killed her husband. She’s hurt, she’s angry, and she accepts his offer of revenge. She doesn’t understand the differences between the parties.
“Then, 40 years later, she is alone, in a wheelchair, talking to God. Everyone knows her story. Everyone is scared of her. Even when she tried to find forgiveness, she was chased away from church, and told she would never see heaven. Everyone judges her, she gets nothing from her old party, she can’t even get a social grant because Home Affairs thinks she’s dead.”
Mthombeni admitted it was a hard role to play. “I have to meditate and pray about it. I use my own family pictures, not Zenzile’s, in the play so I can get strength from my support structure. She has become a hard woman. I have to dig in and ask my ancestors to come with me.”
But she believes these women and their hardships open people’s minds about what happened.
“The young kids need to know these histories, otherwise they’re just walking around like zombies,” she said.
The play is produced by Empatheatre, which was formed by the actress, along with Coppen and Dylan McGarry in 2014.
“It’s research-based theatre. The research is there, but it stays at university and no one reads it. We put it on stage so anyone can have access to it or witness that research.”
It started with the play The Last Country, based on work by Dr Kira Erwin at the Durban University of Technology on migrant women.
“There were a lot of documents on men, not on women. We collected oral histories of people living in Durban, coming from all over Africa, and how they have found in the city places they can live and work. We looked at the challenges ‒ they’re often paid less, and then there’s Home Affairs, language issues, the inability to study and some of the evils they faced back home.
“I want to perform for the policy makers. They need to hear this because they sit at the table and decide. If you perform it, you’re right there in their face. You can touch their hearts.”
She tells of a play they did about whoonga and street drugs.
“Afterwards a police captain took issue with the show. ‘We don’t do that,’ she insisted, regarding a line in the show where cops forced addicts to ingest their drugs when found with them. It was a whoonga addict in the audience who told how it happened to him yesterday,” she said.
Another play, Lalela ulwandle, looks at “what is a socially pressing issue, our oceans. There’s a lot of research from sangomas, surfers, lifeguards, fishermen and coastal communities. We started it at Kosi Bay and toured it all the way down to the Western Cape. Now, One Ocean Hub has invited us to take it to Cop 27 in Egypt. Going international is amazing. Those are the people making the law. We want to touch their hearts,” she said.
For Mthombeni, her role on Durban Gen was a relief during lockdown.
“I was grateful to get work. Everyone was stressed. Initially I was not going to audition; I thought they’re just ticking all their boxes, they know who they want,” she says. But a friend persuaded her.
“I was sitting at home, and didn’t even dress for the part. And I got a callback. I still didn’t believe they wanted me. And then everything went quiet. And suddenly, negotiations were under way.”
She plays Agatha, “the matriarch of the Dlamini family, who doesn’t play games but also makes some horrible mistakes”.
Then she was called back for the second season. “They said they were developing my character and wanted me full time on a global contract. It’s every actor’s dream.”
But her first love is being on stage.
“I’m a theatre person. I love the excitement of a live performance, the energy from the audience. I can feel when they’re with me, when they’re going to laugh with me or cry with me. Then there’s the applause, the ovations, the flowers.”
When she’s not on stage, the acclaimed actress enjoys the quiet life, walking on the beach or meditating. The mother of two adult sons is happy to read books by authors like Esther Hicks and Deepak Chopra.
“It’s a spiritual journey to get closer to my soul,” she said.
Isidlamlilo is on November 4, 5 and 8 at 7pm, November 6 at 2.30pm. There is a special schools performance on November 9 at 11am. The performance is 80 minutes, and there is an age restriction of 13+.
Tickets are R130 through Computicket or call 0861 915 800. For schools and community theatre bookings contact Margie at [email protected] or 083 251 9412.
The Independent on Saturday