TSOTSI, THE MUSICAL. Directed by Khayelihle Dominique Gumede and Neil Coppen. Music by Zwai Bala. Choreography by Thandazile Radebe. Dramaturge by Michael Williams. With Mxolisi Majozi, Kgomotso Matsunyane, Bianca Le Grange, Busisiwe Ngejane and Royston S
ADVERTISED as “an unconventional musical”, this production from Cape Town Opera more than justifies the description.
With an anti-hero and a puppet as leads, and a storyline taken from an Athol Fugard novel set in the 1950s, with much contemporary detail to update it to this century, Tsotsi, the Musical is a hybrid hovering somewhere between folk opera and musical.
What makes this a memorable experience is not so much the plot, the music, or even individual performances, as the brilliance of the work’s presentation, the combination of skills that has forged an ambience which almost becomes a persona in itself, since without the social fabric of Soweto, Tsotsi’s story would not be credible.
Set design (Michael Mitchell), lighting design (Kobus Rossouw), sound design (Marcel Bezuidenhout) and video design (Kirsti Cumming) all play their part in bringing the illusion of vibrant reality to this community.
From a stage screen depicting Johannesburg’s pylons against a fiery sky, the audience is led into a nightmarish world of poverty, violence, gangsters, and criminals.
Welcome to the Soweto of Tsotsi (aka David), where love is conspicuous by its absence, and respect for women, the disabled and the elderly is non-existent.
A nostalgia for tenderness is apparent in the behaviour of young David, mourning the death of his mother and cradling a doll (foreshadowing the mature David/ Tsotsi’s nurture of a baby).
The cheapness of life, and scarcity of the basic necessities of existence, soon pervert any nobler sentiments in this eponymous character as he makes his way to ruthless adulthood.
Majozi proves a powerful lead, confident in his persona and interacting convincingly with other members of the cast.
Other than the baby/puppet – a major protagonist in the drama – two performers stand out: Ngejane as Phumla, the baby’s anguished mother, and Matsunyane as Miriam, a compassionate refugee from Zimbabwe without whose assistance the baby would not have survived.
Both offer rounded and authoritative portrayals, particularly Matsunyane, who is blessed with a clear, sweet voice heard to advantage in a lullaby, while the intensity brought to the role of Phumla by Ngejane significantly raises the emotional temperature of the work.
Ensembles have as great a share of the action as individual characters, and Radebe’s choreography has the stage space optimally exploited.
Choruses have the full-bodied projection one has come to expect from CPO productions.
Apart from the magnificent staging of Tsotsi, the Musical, one cannot but be impressed by the ingenuity with which the tricky issue of the baby is addressed. Since a live performer is out of the question, Janni Younge and Craig Leo have come up with the solution of a puppet.
It takes a while before the audience realises that Tsotsi’s new responsibility is impersonated by a puppet, so realistic is the creation.
Some of the best vocal performances come from cameo characters, such as Thembisile Ntaka (the sinister Nigerian gangster-queen), Bianca Le Grange (Soekie, the shebeen operator) and, all too briefly, Ayanda Nhlangothi (Tsotsi’s mother).
All do justice to the sometimes haunting, sometimes catchy, music of Zwai Bala in this evocation of a society and its mixed freight of good and evil.