Theatre fires up muso’s soul
The Soil frontman composes music for riveting stage play
A cappella group The Soil’s frontman Ntsika Ngxanga flexes his music composition prowess in the stage play Memories & Empty Spaces.
The Nomadic Tribe record label founder and CEO excitedly tells me that so taken was he by the story that, after going through the script, he composed a staggering nine new songs for the production.
The play is written by Ntshieng Mokgoro, who he describes as an “amazing and seasoned” playwright who he met through Theresa Mojela, the show’s choreographer.
The play was opened last week by Terry Pheto, ambassador of Champions of the Environment Foundation that commissioned and funded it.
Memories & Empty Spaces tells the story of Pulane, who has a white father and black mother. The parents elope and move to Europe, leaving her in the care of her maternal grandmother, a revered community leader, healer and rainmaker.
With the money her parents send her, Pulane goes to the best schools in the country until she gets to university in the city and gets entangled in the plastic life – against her granny’s teachings.
She develops an identity crisis and shuns her tradition. She refuses to go to lebollo (female initiation).
She also cuts off her grandmother and never visits her.
Little does she know that the gift has already been passed on from her granny to her.
“It’s a beautiful story told through music which is fit to win a Grammy award. The music has undertones of songs sung by our ancestors and complements the choreography and script,” Ngxanga says.
He shares that the first song is a prayer from the grandmother asking her ancestors to pass on a message to God.
“I also wrote songs in Sesotho about the cleansing of girls as they transition to being women. Pula [rain] celebrates the great symbol of wealth and blessings in African communities,” he says. “There is also a song performed without words when Pulane gets to the village and realises that her grandmother has passed away.
“For a long time I thought making music with my comrades at The Soil was enough, but theatre was calling me.
“And I’m happy that I’m mature enough to immerse myself and see theatre set fire to my soul like this.”
So inspired is Ngxanga that he is writing his own piece, Bapa, about a parallel universe.
“Memories & Empty Spaces” is on at the Olive Tree Theatre in Wynberg, Johannesburg, until September 10