(Mark Dornford-May)
CNN meets the South African theatre
ensemble pioneering township opera
This week on Inside Africa, CNN International meets Mark Dornford-May, the
co-founder and artistic director of South Africa’s Isango Theatre Ensemble, to
learn more about how they transform high art into township dramas. Placing the
classics into a township setting, this ensemble draws on their own traditions
and tempos to craft African versions of universal stories.
Isango creates performances with a strong
South African character by re-imagining Western theatre classics and creating
new work which reflects South African heritage. One recent production told the
story of SS Mendi – a sunken
troopship that saw the drowning of more than 600 South Africans in the English
Channel during the First World War.
The programme meets Marine archaeologist
John Gribble to learn more about the history of the SS Mendi: “Black South Africans ended up serving during the First
World War as a result of pressure from the British government. There was a huge
need for labour, to free up the fighting troupes. In the end, about 21,000 men
went to France. They worked behind the scenes, they weren’t allowed to fight or
to carry arms, but they served in the military machinery.”
Dornford-May explains why he felt compelled
to tell this story on the stage: “Throughout the world there’s often been a
whitewashing, literally, of history. A removing of the black face.” Mandisi
Dyantyis, Isango’s musical director, explains why the production needed to be
performed in South Africa: “The spirits of these men [were] never taken home.
It was never taken back home. African culture believes that the bones of the
dead speak louder sometimes. They speak in who we become, they speak in the
things that happen, to the people that are connected to them.”
When Dornford-May first came to South
Africa to establish Isango 20 years ago, he connected with theatre veteran
Mannie Manim, who fought for multi-racial theatre during apartheid. Manim tells
the programme why such theatre is important: “I thought Mark was a good man
with a wonderful plan and I wanted to encourage anyone who was working across
the colour line because even in the new South Africa, even today, there are
still lots of divisions in our country, sadly so. For black actors to get work,
they had to find alternative spaces, alternative routes, alternative buildings…
they had to stay off the radar. They had to be underground. I used to go and
watch black theatre in church basements.”
The theatre ensemble was immediately a huge
success, with over 2,000 people from townships attending the group’s first
auditions. Dornford-May reflects on this time: “The musical talent in South
Africa is phenomenal. The sort of performing talent in general, in fact, is
just amazing. I don’t know why. It seems to me that nearly every South African
has a natural inclination to be able to perform.”
The programme follows the Isango ensemble
as they rehearse to gain a better understanding of how the team puts together a
production. Dyantyis explains that props can be minimal: “Our rule, as it were,
is always simple. You can use anything that you can find in the township as a
prop or as a sound or as a piece of music. So [we use] marimbas, crates, beer
bottles, oil drums, brooms and all of those things.” Mandisi goes on to explain
why music is an integral part of South African storytelling: “As a kid in the
black community, in the black family, the first thing that you’re taken to [is]
church. And in those churches, music plays a massive role… There’s nothing that
Africans love more than telling stories through singing.”
Dornford-May says that a South African
identity is essential for Isango productions: “I think the sense of community,
the sense of strength within a group, within a culture exists within the
townships and I think Isango builds on that. I think without that basis, that
sense of the life, the intrinsic sort of life force of a township, we wouldn’t
exist.” Choreographer Lungelo Ngamlana
describes what Isango represents: “Isango actually means door. It’s from Xhosa.
It’s a door. We’re opening up the doors for out black youth culture from the
townships to explore, to go further, to see the world. And also tell the
stories about South Africa.”
Inside
Africa airs on July 27 at 10h30 SAST on CNN
International. The show also airs at the following times:
July 27 at 18h30 SAST
July 28 at 04h30 SAST and 19h30 SAST
July 29 at 05h30 SAST and 12h30 SAST
July 30 at 02h30 SAST
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