Theatre for the youth
ITSOSENG: INCUBATOR PROGRAMME SHOWS ITS STUFF
This play remains as relevant as it was when it was written 10 years ago.
Ten years after the Market Laboratory alumnus Omphile Molusi premiered his solo play Itsoseng about a township in the North-West province that was embroiled in service delivery protests, the play remains relevant today as it was at that time.
Itsoseng also received glowing accolades in South Africa and abroad. At the Edinburgh Festival, it won the Scotsman Fringe First Award before transferring to London’s Soho Theatre.
The Market Theatre will give Molusi’s soloplay Itsoseng a new rein of life when Lesedi Job re-imagines and directs the play with cast of seven actors most of whom are Market Theatre Laboratory alumni. Lesedi has proven her mettle as a forceful young director earlier this year when she directed Mike van Graan’s When Swallows Cry playing to sold out audiences and standing ovations.
Itsoseng, which means “wake yourself up”, paints a compelling portrait of a young man who is desperate for change in an impoverished community that lacks basic services like proper schooling, sanitation and housing. Lesedi’s recreation of Itsoseng will be interspersed with Setswana and it will give a personal view of post-apartheid township life.
The Market Theatre plans to take the production on the road with previews at Wits University, the University of Johannesburg
Compelling portrait of a young man who is desperate for change
and the market in Viljoenskroon. Itsoseng is supported by the Department of Arts and Culture Incubator programme which aims to cultivate new voices in theatre by giving young people roles varying from acting to production management.
Omphile Molusi was the first winner of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Brett Goldin Bursary which gave him the opportunity to travel to Stratford Upon Avon for classical training. His play Itsoseng is now a set work for high schools. Itsoseng will run at the Market Theatre from April 7 to May 7.
Itsoseng comes right after the announcement of the Naledi 2017 awards earlier this week, which also focuses on young people in the arts.