Winner a triumph for African theatre
CATTLE DRIVE by Theatre for Africa, at Princess Alice, 8pm daily until Saturday.
BRAVO to father-and-son team Nicholas and Luke Ellenbogen for creating this absorbing piece of theatre, and bravo to the Theatre for Africa cast of Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, Motheo Madisa and Tafara Nyatsanza for bringing it to vibrant life.
Cattle Drive is the story of young Enoch (Madisa), who enlists the help of his older but estranged brother Ra (Mkhwanazi) to take his mother’s cattle to market in Botswana.
The cattle ranchers of Botswana pay well to get their coveted herds from Ghanzi in the north to Lobatse in the south, and so the two brothers reluctantly join forces to make the six-week journey through the dangerous bush.
The journey is full of drama as the experienced Ra is a bitter man, married to alcohol, and resentful of the happier upbringing Enoch has had with his mother, while the inexperienced Enoch in turn has to fend off the threat of wild animal attacks and other terrors along the way.
Both Mkhwanazi and Madisa are amazing physical performers and both use only their bodies to morph convincingly into cattle and lions through movement, dance and storytelling.
The narrator (Nyatsanza) sits in the shadows for much of the show.
Her role is to provide a modern commentary as she plays a publisher enthralled by the story submitted in a manuscript by Enoch’s grandson.
Sadly, although she loves the story, she knows it will have only a niche appeal and is unlikely to be published.
Fortunately for Grahamstown audiences, however, Theatre for Africa has brought this fictional slice of Botswana’s history to the stage and it is a most deserved Standard Bank Ovation Award winner.
Having written more than 160 plays – and perhaps more significantly, having had all of them produced – Nicholas Ellenbogen must be South Africa’s most prolific playwright.
Theatre for Africa also trains and develops actors across the continent.
Along with artists such as Pieter-Dirk Uys and Andrew Buckland, he really is a national creative treasure.