The Suitcase
Written by Es’kia Mphahlele
Directed by James Ngcobo
Performed at Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Siyabonga Twala is a consummate actor. From the moment he walks onstage, in the role of Timi
Ngobese – the protagonist of The Suitcase, you feel the weariness his character feels, the struggle
tormenting him. Twala, star of the TV-series Scandal and many stage productions and films, enters and immediately sets the image of the woes plaguing Timi. His gait is that of a crumpled man in a crumpled suit. In moments we learn the root of Timi’s predicament…his struggle to support his wife and himself in the city which he and wife Namhla have moved to.

Namhla and Timi were spurred by their dream to make it among the bright lights of a metropolis, in this case, Durban. But it is a Durban of the mid-50’s which they encounter and the mantle of Apartheid looms large in the city. Back in their rural village, the black people of the time were largely oblivious of the politics of the Nationalist Government of the era. They had a relatively idyllic simple life to contend with. But the minute they arrive in the Big City, two harsh realities confront them. One – the cruelty of Apartheid; two – the readiness of individuals to take advantage of their country naivety.

The premise of the play is that in taking the opportunity Providence provides for him, Timi takes a suitcase that a passenger left on the bus he always caught to return to his humble dwelling after a soul-and-ego-destroying day of pounding the streets of the city and facing rejection from unsympathetic employers. On discovering the contents of the case, the bubble of Timi’s dream-world bursts as he contemplates the harsh fate life in the city has doled out to him.

Twala brings out all his techniques and abilities as an actor to portray the changes Timi goes through in his quest for survival. He is aptly supported by Ngqobile Sipamla in her own repertoire of characters and emotions as well as by Mncedisi Shabangu and John Lata, who both literally bounce in and out of various city-types which they portray. Lata’s depiction of a drunk soliciting a handout from Timi is remarkable.

One can detect something of Es’kia Mphahlele’s own background in the details of the drama. He grew up in a rural village outside Pretoria and obviously encountered the reality of the city and its inhabitants on his visits to Pretoria.

The Suitcase was published as a short story in the Drum Magazine in 1955, when Mphahlele worked as an editor for the magazine.

To find out more about Es’kia Mphahlele’s writings, go to www.eskiaonline.com

Uselessly
by Aryan Kaganof
Published by Jacana

Uselessly is the name Nobody adopted when he realized that ‘there’s no one else quite as useless as me!’ JJ (James Joyce) Uselessly writes an emotionally tinged story about his correspondence with God, about his father – Harry Uselessly and his struggle with cancer, and his penchant for eating hamburgers, drinking cocktails and generally winging on about questions of life like why do ‘us humans have to work for a living?’
On the surface of the story, JJ Uselessly meanders between Cape Town, Johannesburg and Amsterdam, and given Kaganof’s own cultural route which has taken him along similar paths, the story does seem autobiographical. But the story is told from the POVs of both Uselessly senior and junior.
We get descriptions of how Uselessly junior grew up, the kind of family he grew up among and of the various influences on his life – the story is peppered with references to the music and films he grew up with, and the girls, or cousins, he fantasized about and even encountered his first sexual experiences with.
Along the way one also encounters JJ’s ongoing communication with God – which serves to stress that Uselessly is a God-believing-fearing person who needs answers to life’s questions. In between all this, JJ Uselessly gives us many ascerbic and often poignant, observations and feelings about society, in particular the South African society.
Uselessly does not appear to have any fixed line of work – as he writes: ‘I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. I don’t want to work…’ yet he admits to having to go to Amsterdam ‘to pick up a load of cheques,’ which obliquely suggests that he does make money from his writing and yet does not consider that as work – well, not work of the normal kind. Writers’ work involves sitting in pubs observing under-age girls making-up to men who would buy them drinks. In fact, JJ’s motivation to write is to produce ‘books for people who consider the very idea of reading a book absurd’.
There are frequent references to philosophers - Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, which suggest that JJ has a deep mind, as well as detailed description of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma – the type of cancer his father battled with.
He writes like a journalist, noting down every thought, experience – positive and negative - and life-philosophy which he has met on his road of life. He captures emotions, feelings, hangovers so that we can share in his experiences, especially in his feelings about his father, interspersed with Yiddish life and humour.
One thing struck me about the title – Uselessly – is that it looks much like a play on the title Ulysses, the James Joyce classic. Uslessely (or Kaganof) obviously identifies with this Irish author. Notwithstanding the possible influences, to me Aryan Kaganof is the most socially-relevant writer I’ve read since Tom Wolfe. This is “New Journalism” for the New Millennium.

For more info about Aryan Kaganof, go to www.kaganof.com

and on the book, go to: www.jacana.co.za

Kani and Ntshona revive Sizwe Banzi

The two veteran actors are back on stage at the Market Theatre, in Johannesburg, reviving the characters of Styles and Buntu (Kani) and Sizwe Banzi (Ntshona) in Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Banzi is Dead.

And while the plot may involve the loss of personal identity and the hated ‘dompas’, prevalent in the old South African system, neither John Kani nor Winston Ntshona have lost any identity in their own right as two thespians who continue to exhilarate the audience with their animated, and most vivid, portrayals of the legendary characters of the play which they both devised with Athol Fugard in 1972.

For further details, click on: www.markettheatre.co.za

The Travellers
The Laager – Market Theatre
Review – Tom Jasiukowicz

Is Truth really what it seems? This is the question which the characters of The Travellers attempt to come to grips with during this absorbing play.

When the curtain draws back on the tiny “stage” located on the main stage of the Laager Theatre, the leading lady – Myrtle Frost – introduces herself to the audience through her cabaret act in this play within a play. And while around her, her twin offspring pop up like jack-in-the-boxes, she desperately tries to conceal their innocent existence while going through her bawdy vaudeville-like motions.

This already sets up a warning sign in me that all might not seem like it is being portrayed on the little stage of the Frost Theatrical Troupe. Would a true mother conceal her true offspring in such an offhand manner?

It gradually becomes obvious that Iris and Irving have more than a childhood innocence about them as they go about encroaching on Myrtle’s tardy sequences with their own precociousness. As the twins clown about, mimic mother, sing charming renditions of Home On The Range and Spanish Nights and perform their amiable take on Hamlet and Ophelia, their interest in each other is not merely filial, but incestuous. And “mother” is painfully aware of this.

When the truth of their attachment to her in this traveling troupe with portable stage does surface, the reality becomes too painful to bear for the young lovers and though Myrtle desperately tries to salvage some pride in her “offspring” – as they are clearly her means to earning an income, however pitiful, the consequences are tragic. And in the end, is truth really worth concealing?

The acting of Toni Morkel as Myrtle Frost, Sally Meskin as Iris and Daniel Buckland (son of Andrew Buckland) is outstanding. Director Sylvaine Strike has infused the play with comedy, pathos, and rollercoaster action. The Travellers, as presented and devised by the Fortune Cookie Theatre Company, is a thoroughly enjoyable 80 minutes of theatre magic.

Runs until September 24, 2006.

Drama
The Shooting Gallery
Review
Tom Jasiukowicz

July 14, 2006…8AM…Israeli planes bomb Lebanon

July 14, 2006…8PM…The Shooting Gallery opens in Johannesburg

Johannesburg, South Africa, lies thousands of miles away from the war-zone of the Middle East. Yet…I am sitting in a theatre in this city confronted by the reality of this morning’s Israeli bombing attack on Beirut. I am in the front row of this darkened theatre - the Laager at The Market Theatre - feeling as if I have been transplanted to the front-line of the Middle East conflict.

This is contemporary, current, off-the-cuff real live theatre.

A huge screen forms part of the stage props on which the days’ headlines and vivid pictures from Reuters, The Star and other media keep rolling accompanied by sound bytes of gunshots, the anguished wails of people and eerie effects buzz around this theatre as if it were a bunker right-slap-bang-bang in the middle of any war-zone in the world.

The drama is The Shooting Gallery – a play being staged at The Market Theatre in Newtown, Johannesburg.

For 30 years, The Market Theatre has presented revolutionary drama to theatre-goers and none could be more revolutionary than The Shooting Gallery. Devised and directed by Catherine Henegan, who co-performs it with Aryan Kaganof, (the only actors in the drama). Kaganof’s character personifies what it means to be a photo-journalist/war-correspondent.

Catherine Henegan spends most of the play sitting behind her desk, in her role of a News Editor, behind an array of PC-equipment, punching away at the keypad and mouse - clicking the images that come up on the screen which confront the audience as if the screen itself were an actor involved in the play – perhaps involved in the way a camera is involved in a war – objective, detached, unquestioning and yet totally realistic.

What you see is what you get!

And it seemed to me that the screen overshadows the two people on stage. Because the vivid scenes of soldiers, rioters, guns, faces twisted in anguish and war-zones past and present serve as the focal point of the action of the drama.
The actors seemed to be almost secondary to the plot – what taking photos of a war is all about and what it does to the mind of a photo-journalist.

Aryan Kaganof spends most of the play paying homage to the great TV screen in his attempt to convey the demons and tortures that plague the mind of a war
photographer. The conclusion I got from his portrayal is that taking shots of war scenes is not all fun and games. It is not sitting in front of the TV sipping coffee watching a war-movie. In a war-movie, the actors do not actually get shot, nor do the cameramen get shot or experience the stark reality of witnessing real blood being spilt.

In any war, violent attack, or even a crime scene standoff between the cops and the robbers…people die, bystanders get wounded in the cross-fire and even photographers get in the way of bullets.

In 1994, war-photographer Ken Oosterbroek died when a stray bullet hit him during the violence in Thokoza. Fellow photographers Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva wrote the book The Bang Bang Club (published by Random House in 2001) in which Marinovich describes various incidents in which he himself got wounded while taking pics of the violence which marked South Africa in the years leading up to the first democratic elections in 1994. Film footage of these scenes flash by on the big screen.

The Shooting Club was inspired by this book and I get the impression that Kaganof has based his portrayal on the nightmares and mental images of pain and anguish these photographers experienced in their documentation of the images of war on celluloid. In particular on the experiences of Kevin Carter, a member of this Bang Bang Club who committed suicide in 1994.

In the book, Greg Marinovich wonders: “why did we continue to do work that brought us so much guilt and pain?”

Can a photo-journalist whose days consist of documenting the deaths of countless victims and the anguish of bystanders and loved ones remain uninvolved, unemotional? Uncaring? Is he just doing a job to do to earn a living? What motivates photographers to work in the frontlines of battle-grounds? Is it the adrenalin rush they experience on hearing gunfire and the explosions of bombs? Is it a sense of telling-it-like-it-is because someone has to do it?

Can a war take place if no-one reports on it? Does war feed on the ensuing publicity in the media – in the press, on the TV screen – so that those watching it at home can be entertained by the spectacle of war?

Eventually, the self-realization hits home as Kaganof proclaims…that he… “collects frames”…that is all he does because…”the war feeds me”. Then he wakes up at his own funeral. Did Kevin Carter come to this conclusion? Was the reality too much for him to take?

The Shooting Gallery is real live off-the cuff theatre – the play is adapted to the circumstances of the world of any given day – and it will leave you asking a lot of questions…questions such as…why do we find the coverage of war so fascinating? Are war-correspondents simply feeding our insatiable hunger for our own entertainment?

The Market Theatre, of Newtown, Johannesburg and notable for staging home-grown theatre
in South Africa, is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year -1976 - 2006. Chekov’s The Seagull was the first play to be staged at the Market Theatre in 1976. It was directed by Barney Simon, who co-founded the Market Theatre, and the production company The Company, with Mannie Manim. Among the many plays staged at the Market Theatre over the thirty-year history were:
Marat/Sade (76) Peace and Forgive (77) Egoli (79)

Saturday Night at the Palace (82) Karoo Grand (83)

Farce About Uys (83) Children of a Lesser God (83)

Superheroes (83) Sweeney Todd (83)

Hey Smile Wit’ Me (83) Fantasies of a Refugee (83)

Beechem (84) Torch Song Trilogy (84) Calabash (84)

The Eve (84) Mike (84) Forbidden Fruits (84)

Brave New Pretoria (84) The Dumb Waiter (84)

Dikhitsheneng (84) Weekenders (85) Miss Julie (85)

Judgement (85) Master Class (85) Stukkie Jols (85)

Happy Days (85) True West (85) Spooks (85)

Fairyland (93)

Pale Natives(94) Jozi Jozi (94) Marabi (95) Mojo (95)

and among the many actors and performers to grace the stages of
the Market Theatre were:

David Kramer Mel Miller Abdullah Ibrahim PJ Powers
Paul Slabolepszy Athol Fugard Mbongeni Ngema
Maishe Maponya John Kani Vanessa Cooke
Pieter-Dirk Uys Andrew Buckland Sean Taylor
Neil McCarthy Robert Whitehead Robert Kirby
Janice Honeymann Nicholas Ellenbogen
Yvonne Bryceland Bill Flynn Ramolao Makhene
Barney Simon R.I.P
***
Sibongiseni Mkhize, the Managing Director of the Market Theatre since 2004, said in referring to the anniversary celebrations that he has “reason to celebrate, to be proud of the Market Theatre”; he went on to stress that the Newtown precinct has become a safe area with excellent security and this helps him to face the challenges ahead for the development of the Theatre. Mkhize’s vision for the Market Theatre is to inspire youngsters to feel “passionate about theatre”…so that they can…”respect the legacy and people who lived before them”.

Renowned South African musicians Hugh Masakela, Sibongile Khumalo, the Drakensberg Boys Choir, Jabu Khanyile and Freshlyground; as well as actor-playwright Pieter-Dirk Uys gave performances at the Theatre during June in celebration of this anniversary.

Three theatres make up the Market Theatre…the Main Theatre, The Laager and the Barney Simon Theatre, the latter named in tribute to the late Barney Simon.

In the July-August month, the Main Theatre is staging Guga Mzimba; The Shooting Gallery is on at The Laager while The Suitcase is being performed at the Barney Simon Theatre.
Guga Mzimba focuses on the spirit of the late Gerard Sekoto – the artist and musician who was considered a pioneer of urban black art and social realism. The musical traces his life after his arrival in Paris, where he lived since 1947 until his death in 1993. Sello Sebotsane plays the part of Gerard Sekoto.
A street in Newtown, Johannesburg preserves the name of Gerard Sekoto in posterity.
The Shooting Gallery combines a computer, a projection screen and gruesome war photographs in a chilling multi-media production conceived and directed by Catherine Henegan collaborating with Aryan Kaganof in which a war-photographer relives the images of the wars which he shot with his camera.
Based on a story by world-renowned author Es’kia Mphalele, and adapted and directed by James Ngcobo, The Suitcase deals with marital issues arising from the urban pressures of unemployment and poverty. The plot revolves around a stolen suitcase which a husband steals in order to provide for his wife.
The Suitcase features Siyabonga Twala and Nqobile Sepamla in the leading roles.

History of Contemporary Music of South Africa
by Garth Chilvers & Tom Jasiukowicz,
1994 Toga Publishing.

If you are a South African living abroad, or you have some interest in the origins of music and musicians of other countries, then the book: History of Contemporary Music of South Africa will prove fascinating to you with info on some of the world’s musicians who originated in South Africa.
Among these are: Manfred Mann, Johnny Kongos, Trevor Rabin, Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Jonathan Butler and producers Eddie Kramer and Mutt Lange; and South Africa’s best known group internationally, Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
Read about how these muzos started out in their music careers and progressed into the levels of influence they have in the world of music nowadays.
You can also find out about all the muzos and bands who played a part in South Africa’s music development and heritage.
To find out how to obtain this book – go to
http://myweb.absa.co.za/tomjasiukowicz/shop.htm

Something to think about:

Culture is the cultivation of a society through the artistic development of its people to create a heritage through the preservation of that society’s identity.
This artistic development is preserved through the display of a society’s customs and artifacts in museums and maintained through the ongoing output of that society’s music, fine arts, dance, drama, craftwork and literary works.

Tom Jasiukowicz