SEARCH FOR IDENTITY
Cultures collide in Ubuntu
Love, lies and culture collide as Canadian and South African theatre folk take to the stage in the latest Citadel production, Ubuntu (The Cape Town Project).
The show is set in two different time periods. It opens with Jabba, a young black man from Cape Town who comes to Canada in search of his father, Philani, who moved to Canada as a student 30 years earlier. Philani sent money home faithfully for his son, but never returned for a visit. His son is tormented by this, and wonders why.
While it’s a very specific story about the journey of this father and son, Ubuntu speaks to themes which reveal themselves nearly every day in our own city, including the struggle of immigrants to be seen, and understood, for who they truly are.
The play was co-created 12 years ago in Cape Town by a group of Canadian artists (including Daryl Cloran, the Citadel’s artistic director) who teamed up with artists from South Africa. The collective of writers and actors aimed to explore how to create meaningful stories that can effect change.
“Because we built this from scratch together, it’s one of the things that I am proudest of and which most represents the work that I’m interested in and has my voice in it,” says Cloran, who is directing Ubuntu. “It’s a really good representation of what can be built by putting two different cultures in a room together, and seeing how you negotiate through themes of culture and identity.”
Two of the project’s original cast members, Mbulelo Grootboom and Andile Nebulane, are in Edmonton for the remount of the play, which had its world premiere in Toronto in 2009, and has since played in Halifax, Calgary, Vancouver and Kamloops.
“This play, I love it,” says Grootboom, who co-wrote the work back in 2005 and has performed his role repeatedly during the play’s numerous presentations in this country.
Grootboom plays Philani, who comes to Canada to study viruses at university and finds himself torn between his African culture’s views of healing, in which shamanism figures prominently, and the Western perspective, which views science as the only answer. While in Canada, Philani falls in love with a white woman, which further complicates his situation. How much of himself can he change, and what must he do to stay true to his roots?
In South Africa, the name of the play, Ubuntu, means “I am because you are.” It reflects a traditional African belief, which is that humanity is tied together, and that we are all responsible for each other. The play explores complex relationships amongst its characters, who are linked by a secret that’s not revealed until late in the 90-minute show.
Grootboom says the play explores one of his favourite themes, which is “how we connect as people, men and women, black and white. And what makes us different.”
He notes that in South Africa “we are afraid of the unknown.” The country’s divisive history of apartheid means strangers can be perceived as dangerous because you don’t where they are coming from, politically and personally. Fear of strangers, however, is not restricted to
South Africa, and the play is an effort to get past that very human reaction. It emphasizes the common ground of its characters, even as they clash over cultural differences.
Ubuntu is structured in the tradition of “poor theatre,” which relies heavily on actors’ abilities to tell stories with their voices and bodies. The set is simple, dominated by a wall of some 300 suitcases that can become a desk or a bookshelf. There is music, dance and drumming. Dialogue is sparse in the first 20 to 25 minutes of the show, and even then, the words spoken are in the African language of Xhosa. But Cloran says it’s easy to understand what’s going on.
“There are no subtitles or surtitles. And it totally plays,” says Cloran. “Even if the audience isn’t getting the literal exchange, we’re understanding what is happening between the characters.”
When Ubuntu was created 12 years ago, some people thought it was all about Barack Obama. Today, you could read reflections of our fears about terrorists between the lines of the script.
“It’s a universal play,” says Grootboom.
Cloran echoes that sentiment. “The search for where I belong, that has resonated with audiences from all kinds of different backgrounds,” he says. “People say, ‘That’s my story’ even though they’re not South African. That search for one’s identity is something everyone can relate to.”