DARKER SIDE OF SCHOOL
Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni’s Sainthood, which won a coveted Ovation Award at this year’s National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), is premiering in Cape Town this month at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, writes
SYNOPSIS: Sainthood follows five adolescent matric boys through a particularly eventful week in 2017. Something serious has happened at their school and it is getting a lot of attention for it because of an investigation being opened against them – and these boys are heavily involved. The narrative of the play follows the series of personal events that has led to the investigation.
Writer and director Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni produced Saint
hood in 2015 when she was completing her honours year at the UCT drama school, and was inspired by some of her own experiences while at a private girl’s school in Pretoria. She talks about the stage play.
How have your own experiences fed into the creation of this acclaimed theatre piece?
I went to St Mary’s Diocesan School for Girls in Pretoria – a magical little place with very elegant, feminine architecture. Overall my experience was a positive one in that it taught me incredible work ethic, independence and discipline. I am thankful to my school that it made me a tough little lady. I was raised by a single dad and he made it a point to be part of the school’s parent committee to put in a black male voice. My dad was the only black father in the parents’ committee. Dads in the committee are rare, let alone black dads, and I am thankful because it helped me understand and get through some of the negative experiences I had. What is Sainthood?
There are no “saints” in the play. The title, Sainthood, is a play on the informal titling of private schools as “Saints Schools”. This is derived from the fact that a lot of them have the title “Saint” in their name alluding to the AngloSaxon religious culture/history of these schools. In fact, the name of the school in the play is called “St Gabriel’s School for Boys”.
Why have you have honed in on boys’ private school culture and not a girls’ school?
I chose to put on a play about a boys’ school because the girls’ school 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 produced larger social consequences than girls’ schools.
You do not hear of girls raping another girl as part of initiation in front of other girls, but boys have done this. They always 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, for some, if not most. The entire script is based on true stories that were then fictionalised.
In your feedback sessions, audiences have compared Saint
hood to the Spud franchise – the books and films set in the ambit of the culture of a private (largely white) boys’ school. How do you feel about that? A lot of people bring up the Spud comparison! I usually say, jokingly,
that it is Spud – if Spud decided to take a much darker route. We dive into themes of sexuality, identity, racism and sexual violence. Can you talk about how Sainthood is igniting conversations around schools?
There seems to be an interesting zeitgeist in how we talk about problems at school, this play being one of them. I get shocked when I hear, “this is the first time I’ve seen a play about this” – but high school is not an old story concept – it’s everywhere in literature and on television and film.
In the theatre, it tends to be made into a musical or it is particular to one story (i.e. the student and teacher narrative). There have always been serious issues at schools and the people coming out of school then grow into wounded adults. Some are seriously scarred,
some dangerous and some simply do not make it out alive. With high school being such an important part of someone’s life because it happens at such a critical developmental stage that happens mostly away from home, we need to investigate the truly really dark stuff in an authentic and fearless way. Any plans to take this piece to schools and to other cities?
That is our priority. We are often
told that Sainthood would make a spectacular television series and I have been seriously considering it. I studied writing for the screen, so I am looking to adapt the script for television.
Sainthood will be at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, 26 Wesley St, Observatory. August 14-19 at 8pm and with 2pm matinees on August 18 and 19. There will be question and answer sessions on August 17, 18, 19 – evening shows. Tickets: R70. Available at door. Bookings: Email www . theatrearts. co.za or call 021 447 3683.