NUMBERED - 05978321

Durban University of Technology’s Drama and Production Studies pushes new boundaries with Genbia Hyla’s exciting new work 05978321. This powerful visually spectacular production will enjoy its world premiere this year at the 2012 Grahamstown National Arts Festival, a fitting international arena for a new South African work that echoes globally.

Genbia Hyla’s Numbered! (dedicated to Hylton Beresford Lutge) was written for the DUT: Department of Drama and Production Studies 2012 final year students. The work, directed by Thembalethu ‘Proh’ Nqumako under the directorial eye of Prof. Deborah Arlene Lutge, cleverly weaves between a series of complicated events.

First, there is a crime witnessed during a peacekeeping mission in Burundi in 2001 and a consequent court martial. A decade later the witness commits a murder and murders the alleged murderer in the Burundi Court Marshall. Although written by KwaZulu-Natal born playwright Genbia Hyla, the landscape of the play is global insinuating any army. The work which views for the first time publically on June 28 at the Rehearsal Room in the Monument has the potential to scoop awards. Although the production performs only twice in Grahamstown on June 28 and 30, it will be presented for a week on returning to Durban at the DUT Courtyard Theatre from July 17 to 21 commencing at 18h00.

There are a number of anomalies that surface in the script which make this play internationally competitive. First, the playwright is specific in all details from costuming to set to make-up, allowing a solid conceptual collaboration between all the elements. Second, the work does not explicitly set the landscape in a particular area, affording the work a wide application. Third, the director may choose whether the legal teams are the same characters or different characters as the trials are 10 years apart.

Thembalethu attempted to portray that the legal teams, although they remain the same, are operational in different court system by changing the Judges: the former being a man, the latter a woman. Fourth, the defence of ‘automatism’ allows the audience to determine whether: automatism is a manufactured defence; a condition really suffered by the defendant; or a condition originally brought in as a defence that the appellant imbibes, finally believing the automatism to be true.

Fifth, in the story-line there are three systems of justice: military; judicial; ethical. Sixth, the suicide at the end may interpret as a suggesting of ‘orgasmic gasping’ or suicide, or national brutalization. Finally, we are not sure if the plot is a set of memories and we are inside the central protagonist’s brain; a flashback film strip running in the dying moments of the central protagonist’s life; or an actual sequence of significant events – the only ones we remember. In the latter’s case Hyla alludes to the fact that history remembers only highlights and events with significant consequences, therefore these are the only recorded moments that have longevity.

Conceptually, the work presents itself as a collage of scenes set in an armour-plated world evolved from the scrap heap, and mechanized by conditioned responses, with android figures crossing in and out of spaces within frameworks and boundaries. The script includes strong visual representation for armour, masks, horns, skulls, grids, metal rods, armour-plated desks, uniforms, metal peeling make-up that all takes the play into an alternate cyberspace world. The scenes allow for ingenuity and flexibility in the direction with the play making strong suggestions and Nqumako says: “Lutge has used these moments to demonstrate how using props in intricate detail add value and directorial interpretation”.

One of the greatest challenges has been sourcing the items with which to construct the props, costumes and set. Mthandazo Mofokeng as Technical Director has been responsible for taking charge of the set construction working long hours to realize Hyla’s vision. Pamela Tancsik has assisted students to copy the make-up wizardry of Luke O’Gorman who gave life to the Hyla make-up concept. Many of the songs are original with cast-director teams working together to finalize the melodies. This has invested the project with its innovative design, an involvement embraced by all participants in this production.

05978321 has performances in Grahamstown at the Rehearsal Room on June 28 at 16h00 and June 30 at 18h30. Age restriction strictly adults only. Tickets R35 (R25 student/scholar)

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