Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s Mahogony and created specifically for
and by 2nd and 3rd Year Drama and Performance Studies students from the
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, The Rise and Fall of the City of Baobabia is adapted for a South
African audience.
The play is an allegory of 20 years of
South African democracy. From 1994 to 2014 and the birth of the “Fall”
movements, The City of Baobabia
represents expressions of freedom in the new South Africa, both morally and
economically.
The year is 1994, and MaBegbick, a
cadre-turned-gangster, is fleeing from the law. Her getaway vehicle, a truck,
breaks down on the northern border in the middle of nowhere. Instead of
continuing, she decides to create a new city of freedom, and she names it
Baobabia, and proclaims the city centre the “As you like it Tavern.”
Prostitutes in the big cities hear about
this new city and gather in numbers knowing it will be a gold mine for their
trade. Men are recruited by MaBegbisk’s henchmen, Fatty and Moses, and they
willingly leave the big cities for the promised land of Baobabia, where whisky,
women and leisure are freely available, at a price.
Jimmy Mabaso is a freedom fighter and
fortune seeker who returns to South Africa in 1994 after spending his exile in
the Congo, and he hears about Baobabia and heads there with his comrades. Jimmy
falls in love with Jenny, a prostitute and business woman. Jimmy is not
satisfied with Baobabia, saying it is too free, too peaceful and too boring, so
he encourages anarchy. An approaching cyclone which has destroyed Pretoria and
other parts of the country, threatens to destroy Baobabia. Jimmy acts as the
hero, a leader encouraging freedom, whilst MaBegbick takes advantage of the
crisis introducing more draconian laws, developing a fascist front to the city
of freedom.
Using song, chorus work and multi-media, The Rise and Fall of the City of Baobabia
serves as a good example of Brechtian theatre. The style is energetic, fast
paced and relevant for anyone burning for change in this confusing time.
Devised and directed by William le Cordeur,
assisted by Francis Mennigke who also has designed the sound, The Rise and Fall of the City of Baobabia
runs from May 3 to 6 at 19h30 at the Hexagon Studio Theatre on the University
of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg campus. Tickets R40 at the door.
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