(Tony Miyambo)
Heading to
the Schlesinger Theatre at Michaelhouse in Balgowan on March 10 is The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri, a finely
crafted monument to memory.
Written by
Tony Miyambo, Gerard Bester and William Harding, the play was commissioned by
Gita Pather, director of Wits Theatre, in 2014 to be part of a the inaugural So Solo Festival.
It went on
to make a historic appearance on the main platform at the National Arts
Festival in Grahamstown - the first time an original Wits Theatre production
has been invited to do so.
Performed
by Tony Miyambo, with direction by Gerard Bester and dramaturgy by William
Harding, The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri
is an intensely personal reconstruction of Tony Miyambo’s memories of his
father, Daniel Rasenga Miyambo.
The play
explores an intimate father-son relationship recalled and reconstructed through
remembered moments from the past, fading images captured in sepia toned photographs,
conjured up conversations, snippets of music, truths and half-truths. It is an
ancient human attempt to connect our present to the past by mapping our
relationships with the one’s we love.
The Cenotaph for Dan wa Moriri finds form in grief, and examines the
disappearance and reconstruction of memory to honour the intimacy of individual
history.
In her
review of the play, renowned theatre critic, Adrienne Sichel, said: “Memorials
and cenotaphs tend to be built out of marble or granite. In memory of his
beloved father 26-year-old actor Tony Miyambo has created a deeply poignant
monument out of words and mercurial movement.”
Bester,
Miyambo and Harding worked together to create the play. Describing the process
Miyambo said: “Dealing with my personal biography to create The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri has been
one of the most difficult yet rewarding processes… When Daniel Rasenga Miyambo
died in 2007, the world stopped for at least a week. The funeral was planned,
food was prepared, people arrived, he was put into the ground, people washed
their hands, ate the food and life moved on but I couldn’t.
“Waking up
each day after that was painful; I could still vividly recall the tone of his
voice, the colour of his eyes and the feeling of his touch. It haunted me, he
lived everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Our life together became an
endless loop and the years began to strip away the detail of this man from my
mind. My father never got to see me on
stage and every time I perform the piece I feel as though I am having a
conversation with the audience, myself and my dad,” Miyambo adds
The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri takes place on March 10 at 19h30 at
the Schlesinger Theatre at Michaelhouse in Balgowan. Tickets R100 (R80 concessions) booked
through www.tickethut.co.za/michaelhouse, email Angela
Jonsson at theatre@michaelhouse.org
or call her at 033 234 1314 weekdays between 08h00 and 13h00.
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