Star-studded cast tackles Athol Fugard’s ‘Nongogo’
WITH Athol Fugard’s The Train Driver playing to full houses in the Mannie Mannim, the Market Theatre will close its Athol @86 celebration of Athol Fugard as one of the world’s most respected and frequently studied living contemporary dramatists with a season of Nongogo, a powerful and informed classic that is a dramatic portrait of black people living in the townships.
Nongogo, directed by James Ngcobo, is set in a shebeen outside Johannesburg in the 1950s, a vibrant, yet turbulent time in the history of the country. The play, one of Fugard’s earliest works, tells the tale of displaced township individuals who are gripped by a futile longing to belong and be loved. In every shebeen you’ll find the broken characters of life, the displaced, the hopeless and the loveless trying to find solace.
Nongogo is a powerful and captivating piece, rife with unfulfilled hopes and ambitions, friendship and dependence, dark secrets and jealousy. Even though the characters all carry heavy burdens, the tone throughout the show is light-hearted, making it a highly entertaining piece of quality theatre with thought-provoking ideas seeping through, rather than imposing themselves on to the audience.
Zikhona Sodlaka will debut at the Market Theatre as Queenie, a woman of strength, determination and courage, as she dreams of a better life and has a past that’s riddled with dark secrets.
Johnny, played by Zenzo Ngqobe, is an imaginative businessman who is on the verge of getting his big entrepreneurial break, and he develops a relationship with Queenie.
Making his big theatre comeback is Vusi Kunene playing Sam, a tough, jealous character. Peter Mashigo also makes his long-awaited return to the Market Theatre as Blackie, the deformed man whose love for Queenie clouds his view of life.
Bongani Gumede, an alumni of the Market Theatre Laboratory, portrays Patrick’s character, a pathetic drunkard whose wife is giving birth to his sixth child. He is so indecisive that all he can do is worry about what to call his new son.
The adroit hand of director James Ngcobo has woven a very textured piece that’s jovial yet deep, as events of the past prevent this collection of characters from achieving any brighter outcome in the future. “Each of the cast members was chosen for their ability to take ownership of their respective characters,” explained Ngcobo.
“The play’s broad theme is romance. It’s such a timeless quality and love is a primary emotion we all share across the differences of social status. Each actor brought a depth of emotion and understanding of their character’s complexity to the process. It makes for an extremely moving representation of the simplicity of love in a very complex era.”