Market Theatre to stage its first Sotho play
Tonight theatre
THE MARKET Theatre’s bold and historic move to stage its first Tswana production last year paid off with resounding success. Moagi Modise’s Lepatata went on to win a Naledi for Best Ensemble out of its six nominations, becoming the first Tswana play to win a major theatre award. It attracted newer audiences from as far as North West province, proving the need for people to see themselves and their cultures represented on big South African theatre stages.
In response to this, The Market Theatre is staging a Sotho play as its Heritage Month production in partnership with the Soweto Theatre, which will see the show staged at the two theatres in direct succession.
Mosali Eo U ’Neileng Eena is a Sotho play by Mosotho playwright, author and poet, Nt eliseng ’Masechele Khaketla, who was the first woman in Lesotho to receive a BA degree.
Set in the 1950s, the nuance of the play is embedded in its Sotho culture, but the overarching themes centre on love and forgiveness in a relationship, based on one woman’s journey.
The play is a love project for the director, Selloane Lalu Mokuku, and mentor Makhaola Siyanda Ndebele, who’ve wanted to stage it since their days at UCT more than 20 years ago.
Getting to finally do it is a release for both and a great feat for Mokuku who, at 48, can tick this off her bucket list.
“The main thing had always been where to stage it. I didn’t mind that it’d be called ‘community theatre’, but we wanted it to also be a professional theatre production,” Mokuku says.
She highlights a crucial matter where plays in indigenous languages do exist, but tend to be relegated to community theatre status with no chance of reaching the mainstream, with some perceived to be of low production quality, when the opposite is true.
An exemplary play that’s slowly breaking the mould is Kgolo, by Karabo Kgokong and Martin Koboekae, which since its Windybrow Theatre premiere in 2010, will be staged at the Mmabana Centre in Mahikeng from September 20 to 24 starring Seputla Sebogodi.
So the importance of the Market Theatre putting on these plays runs deep as it gives hope for others that they could one day get there.
Just like with Lepatata, which Ndebele directed, it’s a warm ensemble process that he is experiencing with Mosali Eo U ’Neileng Eena, where the cast and crew are rallying behind the production. And it’s a cast and crew full of women telling a woman’s story written by a woman.
“The play was written in 1954 in Lesotho, a time in which women were painted as evil in many books by men writing for women. While the story shows the internalised effects of patriarchy, it’s a gentle reminder of our feminine and masculine prowess,” says Mokuku.
As a theatre maker, she is drawn to texts that bring out the light in all of us.
“I believe the more we focus on our light, the more we can get to our desired future. I don’t like to dwell on victimhood and I love this play because it presents a very powerful woman,” Mokuku says.
Together with Ndebele, they have decided to tell the story from a frame of a Sotho tshomo (folktale), with music and movement accentuating the text and action.
“Africans tell their stories with boundless imagery. The play will have the European style of four acts, but my interest is in making it more relevant to how we have historically told stories,” Ndebele says.
Mosali Eo U ’Neileng Eena premiers at the Market Theatre, Thurs to Sept 25, followed by a run at the Soweto Theatre, Sept 28 to October 2.
Titi Motsieloa and Lerato Makara in