Sello Maake Ka-Ncube and Themi Venturas (pictured) work well together in adaptation of Lewis Nkosi’s novel. (Review by Caroline Smart)As part of its New Stages programme, the Playhouse Company is presenting the world premiere of a stage adaptation of Lewis Nkosi’s Macmillan Pen Prize-winning novel, Mating Birds.
As they were about to go into their rehearsal process, how poignant it must have been for the director Mpho Molepo and cast members Sello Maake Ka-Ncube and Themi Venturas to mourn Lewis Nkosi’s death just over a month ago on September 5.
A multifaceted writer, Nkosi was born and educated in KZN and started his journalistic career with Ilanga lase Natal. An impressive career followed, but this happened in exile outside of South Africa and away from the constraints and restrictions imposed on publishing through the Suppression of Communism and Publications and Entertainment Acts. His extensive command of the English language and control of its nuances, ironies and sub-text makes for emotive and well-structured dialogue. In adapting his Mating Birds, working in collaboration with Sello Maake Ka-Ncube, Mpho Molepo has brought out these facets in a compelling two-hander script that focuses on the relationship between the condemned man, Sibiya, and the clinical psychologist Dufré.
With good dramatic lighting and the effective use of sound effects, the setting is the stark prison cell of Ndi Sibiya who is soon to hang because he raped a white woman. He passionately believes that it was a consensual act and that the woman led him on, to the point where she deliberately undressed in full sight of him and lay down on a bed, leaving the beach-cabin door open. This followed a series of meetings, whether chance or otherwise, on the beach where she always caught his attention, as well as a later incident when they simulated sex without even touching.
However, when the case comes to trial, it’s her word against his and - she being white and he being black in apartheid South Africa - there’s no guessing as to whose story gets believed.
The progression of events is extracted out of Sibiya by the pipe-smoking Dufré and his often pedantic questions provide most of the humour of the play. The cynical Dufré finds it hard to believe that Sibiya is as shy and retiring as he says he is and that Sibiya actually believes in love.
Both excellent actors with years of experience behind them, Sello Maake Ka-Ncube and Themi Venturas acquit themselves well in this one-act play. The former reveals his dramatic power in the passionate moments such as when he declares that he and the woman defeated apartheid by making love without making contact, the latter delivering amusing lines with the right level of irony.
Sello Maake Ka-Ncube and Themi Venturas work well together, despite the memory lapses of opening night and I wish I could see this production later in its short run when performances have settled. I urge lovers of good drama to see this piece as it is an important new work and should be recognised.
There are only three more performances of Mating Birds in The Playhouse Drama tomorrow night and Saturday (October 15 and16) at 19h30 with an extra matinee performance on October 16 at 14h30. Tickets at R60 can be booked through Computicket on 083 915800 or through the Playhouse Box Office on 031-369 9596 (office hours). – Caroline Smart