Musical celebration of emancipation
IF YOUfeel proudly African, this is your show. As the words of former president Thabo Mbeki’s I Am An African emotionally captured in dance plays out before your eyes, the impact of where we are hits you directly in the heart.
That’s what Ngcobo achieves with this reflection on 20 years of democracy with a special homage to the past struggles and those brave men and women who fought for freedom while linking it to the similarities of the American Civil Rights movement which started 50 years ago.
It’s an elegant coming together of words, music and dance which isn’t always the easiest thing to pull off, but it seems Ngcobo’s years of working with this type of genre has given him a confident grace of beautifully working the balance and achieving a flow through the production that is seamless.
It’s also the cunning choice of the words and the music that adds weight to a programme that he urges audiences to embrace rather than think about. It’s emotional as we listen to Verwoerd outrageously comparing apartheid with “good neighbourliness”, to Miriam Makeba’s heart-wrenching Gauteng (even without understanding the words), Sidiya’s soulful choreography capturing some of the country’s most horrific moments with a mournful majesty and the Langston Hughes poem I, Too, Sing America that speaks to a universal longing for freedom and belonging.
It’s nostalgia often drenched in sadness and sorrow, not to wallow but to celebrate what people have cushioning the song and the dancing adds another language which adds spectacle to the substance. Each and every performer is sizzling in the moment which is simply magical with, it seems, everyone in the audience proudly African.
It’s an adult musical which presents a perfect alternative for this time of year.