(Musawenkosi
& Bongomusa Shabalala)
Beautifully written and directed with
excellent performances. (Review by Caroline Smart)
If you want to see a brilliant piece of
theatre, don't miss Izipopolo which
forms part of the Playhouse New Stages and runs until tomorrow (May 14) with performances
in The Loft at 14h00 and 19h30. It is beautifully written and directed with
excellent performances from identical twins Musawenkosi and Bongomusa Shabalala!
I have to admit that if I see the twins
standing next to each other, I am able to tell them apart but if I meet them individually,
I am helpless to know which is which. Thankfully, they have their names
tattooed on their arms, which are uncovered in this show, so identification is
possible.
Not that one is better or less talented than
the other – this is a marvellous two-hander in which their combined
considerable talents have been utilised to the full by director Neil Coppen.
The play is a collaborative piece from the three of them and deals with twin
relationships. Musawenkosi and Bongomusa play numerous characters from young
children to old men – all with fine accuracy and credibility.
The staging is superb with props carefully
placed at the opening. There are also two identical outfits lying on the floor
as if the wearers just lay down and slipped out of their vests, jeans and
shoes.
Alongside Zulu drums, sticks and spears which
are used in some dramatic fight scenes, there are suitcases that become doors,
candles that become stars and calabashes which are hilariously used later to
represent the pendulous breasts of rural women washing in the river. Two ropes
hang from the flies which become umbilical cords in a beautiful scene depicting
the twins in the womb.
As the play opens, the two men come in and
put on their clothes, their movements and speech mirroring each other perfectly.
They move to meet with hands touching as if they are looking at themselves in a
mirror. Then one breaks away, explaining that he has to go and so follows the
focus on their relationship where the one is devastated at the break from the
other and can’t imagine a world without him.
They think each other’s thoughts, dream the
same dreams, help each other at school, take punishment for the other … and
both love the same girl.
As the play
progresses, we meet their grandfather who uses binoculars to show the
youngsters special stars in the heavens. “Izipopolo” is the Zulu name for
binoculars and when the children fight over possession of them, the old man dubs
the twins Izi and Popolo and explains that they should share the binoculars,
looking through two lenses to see the world as one.
Two small bundles represent the twins and
this is when we learn about ancient cultural beliefs where twins were
considered a curse and one must be killed at birth. The mother is distraught
but the father insists that if she doesn’t do it, he will. So she runs away to
a neighbouring village and leaves the baby on the doorstep of a woman she knows
longs to have children.
Another focus on culture is that if a twin
dies, the other must lie in his grave and then rise and walk away without
looking back otherwise the spirit of the departed is forever locked to the living.
Elements of this belief colour the modern-day relationship of the two men.
I am
afraid that I am not as conversant with the Zulu language as I would like to be.
Even though the play is mainly in English, I lost a lot of what was obviously very
funny or clever dialogue judging from the audience’s laughter or gasps of
admiration.
This
production is bound to travel – don’t miss it!
Izipopolo has three more performances in The Playhouse Loft Theatre: tonight (May 13) at 19h30 and two tomorrow (May 14) at 14h00 and
19h30. Tickets R65 booked through Computicket or the Playhouse Box Office on 031
369 9540/9596. Discounted parking is available at the Royal Hotel parkade or at
the Albany Grove parkade. – Caroline Smart
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