Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Searing study of bullying
Educate yourself about what goes on at schools, in young theatre prodigy’s play
TIISETSO Mashifane wa Noni’s searing play Sainthood, which won an Ovation Award at the 2018 National Arts Festival (NAF) in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), is on at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from February 6-23.
After the NAF, Sainthood had a brief run in August at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Observatory, but the run at the Baxter is the first season at a mainstream venue.
In Sainthood, Pretoria-raised theatre-maker Mashifane wa Noni, 23, follows five adolescent matric boys through a week at their school “and the school is getting a lot of attention for it due to an investigation being opened against them, and these boys are heavily involved”.
I rate Sainthood one of my top theatre picks of 2018 – a powerful and acutely-observed piece of new writing, coupled with superlative staging, infused with physically-charged performances by UCT graduates Adam Lennox, Tevin Musara, Cullum McCormack, Mphumzi Nontshinga and Simphiwe Shabalala.
Mashifane wa Noni directs and has brought her text to stage with creativity, and moments of quirkiness and inspired choreographically sequenced scenes.
The play taps into bullying, peer pressure, adolescent culture, sexuality, identify and sexual assault, chillingly portrayed. It’s a play people need to see at the beginning of the year – teenagers and their parents.
I don’t want to plot-spoil by revealing the narrative.
Within the intensity of the thriller-type format, the play is embedded with laugh-out-loud humour which provides a release to what emerges.
The characters banter and push and pull each other physically – playfully as adolescent boys tend to do, until it’s not playful.
Mashifane wa Noni went to a girls’ school in Pretoria and was head girl of a private school St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria, which she describes as “a magical little place with very elegant feminine architecture”.
For Sainthood, she decided to turn her gaze to boys’ school culture. “I chose to put on a play about a boys’ school because the girls’ schools narrative was so close to home that I didn’t even know where I would begin in putting it in a theatrical setting.
“Girls tend to be ‘passive aggressive’ in dealing with each other, whereas boys are ‘aggressive aggressive’, and since I was writing from a somewhat passionate place, I thought that an all-boys’ school produces larger social consequences than girls’ schools.
“You don’t hear of girls raping another girl as part of initiation in front of other girls, but boys have done this. They often take it a step too far and that is worrying, especially if they come from an environment where money does not seem to be a problem.
“The script is based on true stories that were then fictionalised to protect the identities of the people involved.”
Therein lies the nub. Folks, take a look at what is going on in your offspring’s schools.
No one is immune. The talent of Mashifane wa Noni is her ability to transmute and distil vivid characters – which go beyond being perpetrators, victims and bystanders. She has crafted a compelling theatre piece which transcends being an issue-driven play.
Aware of the Baxter being a different space to previous venues at the NAF and Theatre Arts Admin, she said: “I’ve always loved the Golden Arrow Studio. We’re going to change minor technical things – mostly sight lines and the placing of props and set because we usually perform in a traditional Black Box Theatre with a flat surface.
“I want to try to use every dimension of that particular stage, including playing around with some new lighting states.
“One big thing that will change is informed by the addition of a couple of extra couple of minutes to the play’s running time.
“We want to expand on the narrative of sexual violence by playing with the idea of déjà vu with audience – so that scene will be made within that space for the first time.”
Mashifane wa Noni is an exciting voice in South African theatre. The mind boggles that someone only 23 has a maturity beyond her years to write and direct this superb play.
Sainthood is on in the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from February 6 to 23 at 7.30pm with Saturday matinees at 3pm. Tickets are R50-R100. Book at www.webtickets.co.za