Listen to the children
The play explores issues through the eyes of kids
Performer and writer Bongile Lecoge-Zulu takes her storytelling to new heights with her latest production Dear Mr Government Please May I Have a Meeting with You Even Though I am Six Years Old.
She says the idea of the show came from a children’s research she conducted with Cheraé Halley, and researcher Jessica Lejowa in Lesotho and South Africa.
The concept was inspired by xenophobic violence, and mass evictions in South Africa brought into focus the lack of representation of children in media platforms.
Dear Mr Government, Please May I have a Meeting With You Even Though I’m Six Years Old is a retelling of what children are saying about their governments.
It premiered at the ASSITEJ World Congress and International Theatre Festival for Children and Young People in May.
It went to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and last week ended its run at the UJ Arts Theatre.
Lecoge-Zulu explains: “What we realised while hosting workshops talking to children is that they want to make decisions. They want to talk to Mr Government and they want Mr Government to listen to them.”
She says the play invites audiences from eight year old to teenagers, and adults to see everything through the eyes of children.
“While it brims over with play and sound and smell and wonder, it cuts with a heavy and urgent truth – children are suffering for the world.”
Currently teaching flute at Brescia House and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, she is experienced when it comes to performing art.
She has been involved in a number of collaborative interdisciplinary artistic endeavours. The play is billed for performances in schools around Gauteng and Cape Town next year.