SHWELE Bawo, a one-man theatrical production written by seasoned actress Motshabi Tyelele, and in which she stars, opened to a huge crowd this week.
The opening night on Wednesday could not accommodate all the guests and the show had another opening on Thursday at the Market Theatre. This is unprecedented in theatre in recent years.
The first opening night was attended by the heavyweights of the world of arts, including theatre icon John Kani and Angie Makwetla, chairwoman of the National Arts Council of South Africa.
According to the director's notes Shwele Bawo is about Dikeledi, a young woman who decides to take the law into her own hands after having endured many years of physical and emotional abuse from her husband.
The husband never appears but his presence is implied in the story.
She plotted to kill her husband but as fate would have it, just as she was about to execute her murder plan the husband was prematurely killed instead by criminals unconnected to the wife's plot.
That is as far as the main plot of the story can go.
But as an audience sitting in the theatre you are taken on a journey that is more complicated than what the director is simplistically offering in her notes.
Though the production deals with serious issues it is enjoyable in that it uses humour and familiar South African cultural nuances to negotiate the representation of sensitive issues .
The show will make you laugh, just as you are confronted by difficult racial stereotyping from the actress.
These fragile racial connotations can only be palatable to an audience on stage if the context in which they are used is well understood.
Motshabi does that very well. Instead of making the audience angry, they instead laugh, though embarrassed. This is superb acting on the part of Motshabi.
On the main, Shwele Bawo remains a theatre piece highlighting social ills in society such as women abuse, obsession with material possessions, commercialisation of funeral norms and traditions among black communities and suburban white madams' stereotypes when it comes to how they relate to their new black neighbours in the suburbs.
Shwele Bawo, which is directed by Lynne Maree, runs at the Market Theatre until March 18.
Social ills laid bare
SHWELE Bawo, a one-man theatrical production written by seasoned actress Motshabi Tyelele, and in which she stars, opened to a huge crowd this week.
The opening night on Wednesday could not accommodate all the guests and the show had another opening on Thursday at the Market Theatre. This is unprecedented in theatre in recent years.
The first opening night was attended by the heavyweights of the world of arts, including theatre icon John Kani and Angie Makwetla, chairwoman of the National Arts Council of South Africa.
According to the director's notes Shwele Bawo is about Dikeledi, a young woman who decides to take the law into her own hands after having endured many years of physical and emotional abuse from her husband.
The husband never appears but his presence is implied in the story.
She plotted to kill her husband but as fate would have it, just as she was about to execute her murder plan the husband was prematurely killed instead by criminals unconnected to the wife's plot.
That is as far as the main plot of the story can go.
But as an audience sitting in the theatre you are taken on a journey that is more complicated than what the director is simplistically offering in her notes.
Though the production deals with serious issues it is enjoyable in that it uses humour and familiar South African cultural nuances to negotiate the representation of sensitive issues .
The show will make you laugh, just as you are confronted by difficult racial stereotyping from the actress.
These fragile racial connotations can only be palatable to an audience on stage if the context in which they are used is well understood.
Motshabi does that very well. Instead of making the audience angry, they instead laugh, though embarrassed. This is superb acting on the part of Motshabi.
On the main, Shwele Bawo remains a theatre piece highlighting social ills in society such as women abuse, obsession with material possessions, commercialisation of funeral norms and traditions among black communities and suburban white madams' stereotypes when it comes to how they relate to their new black neighbours in the suburbs.
Shwele Bawo, which is directed by Lynne Maree, runs at the Market Theatre until March 18.
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