(Father & I - Lauge Sorensen DSC)
Nido Tins and Broken Bonds: Rethinking Fatherhood in Father & I by Nothando Ndlovu, JOMBA! Khuluma Writing Residency 2025. Edited by Clare Craighead
Father & I, presented by the Market Theatre Foundation
in partnership with Moving into Dance, directed by Greg Homann and
choreographed by Sunnyboy Mandla Motau, offers a layered and moving exploration
of fatherhood and the complexities of paternal relationships in South Africa.
Through a potent synthesis of storytelling, music, and contemporary dance, the
piece probes the wounds of absence and abandonment while also opening a space
for empathy, resilience, and re-imagined masculinities.
Symbolism anchors
the work. Most striking is the recurring presence of Nido milk tins, placed
deliberately across the stage. They become haunting emblems of loss, each
evoking the silent departure of fathers and the lingering emotional scars borne
by children. This motif gathers weight throughout the performance, culminating
in the final image of nine tins — each carrying its own story of fatherhood,
fractured or whole. The visual echoes long after the curtain call, refusing
neat resolution.
The stage design amplifies this sense of longing. Bare branches and shadows stretch across the backdrop, evoking fractured memory and yearning for connection. Against this, the performers embody stories both personal and collective, shifting between vulnerability and defiance.
A powerful tribute to mothers is woven through the performance. In movement sequences, women cradle, grow, and comfort their children — embodying a steadfastness that holds families together when fathers falter. This depiction, however, is not romanticised; instead, it underscores the disproportionate burdens carried by mothers and the silences around men’s responsibilities.
The piece interrogates entrenched notions of masculinity. Hurtful words such as “Uyistabane” and “Qina” are voiced, exposing the destructive weight of societal expectations that demand hardness and deny tenderness. A pivotal moment arrives in a stick-fighting sequence accompanied by a song in isiZulu, asking “Siyini isenzo sobudoda?” (What makes you a full man?). The answers offered — ukuthembeka (trust), amandla (power), isibindi (bravery) — complicate rather than resolve the question, pushing the audience to consider whether these qualities truly define manhood, or whether new definitions must be forged.
The ensemble — Thabang Chauke, Lumka Dumezweni, Xhamla Samsam, Wenziweyinkhosi Myeni, Lesego Dihemo, Sbusiso Gumede, Wesley Hlongwane, Afikamabiyase Ziqubu, and Lucracia Magoro — delivers performances of searing honesty, their bodies carrying stories that resist erasure. The live musicians, Matthew Macfarlane and Bongile Lecoge-Zulu, enrich the atmosphere, their score oscillating between lament and rallying cry. Lecoge-Zulu’s collaboration with Macfarlane adds texture, rooting the work in a sonic landscape that feels both deeply local and universally resonant.
By weaving intimate narratives with broader societal critique, Father & I interrogates the wounds left by absent fathers while also challenging men to imagine new ways of showing up - as present, vulnerable, and accountable. It is a performance that does not offer easy answers, but instead insists on dialogue, reflection, and the possibility of transformation.
Father & I had its final performance at JOMBA! on September 3, 2025. Tickets were available via Webtickets or at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre box office. - Nothando Ndlovu
JOMBA! Khuluma
The JOMBA! Khuluma
is a Dance Writing Residency that runs as part of the JOMBA! Contemporary Dance
Experience. The residency has taken on
many shapes and forms since its inaugural edition under the mentorship of Adrienne
Sichel in 2010, including international and local participation and
inter-university engagement including institutions such as UKZN, DUT and Wits
University as well as The University of East London in the UK. The aim of the Khuluma is to nurture the next
generation of dance writers in South Africa.
Posts
