Theatre

In two weeks, the first ever South African Film and Television Awards will take place. It’s a watershed moment for the domestic industry, marking its remarkable transition from local to global after just 12 years of democracy. It has been a long effort; one, however, that will forever be defined by the phenomenal success of ‘Tsotsi’, Gavin Hood’s gutsy motion-picture about the redemption of a township gangster which won South Africa its first Oscar earlier this year. Feature continues

But as both film and television flourish, new South African theatre is still waiting to step onto the world stage. While the number of South African productions playing in London over the next four weeks (including ‘Bruised’ at the Bush Theatre and the second part of the Southern Africa season at the Oval House) is testament to its talent and tenacity, domestic development is hampered by underfunding and the struggle to redefine itself after being coloured by the politics of apartheid for so long. So can a searing drama from a progressive team of young artists, including two ‘Tsotsi’ alumni, do for theatre what the aforementioned did for film?

It certainly looks promising. Since opening at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown last July, ‘Township Stories’ has gained widespread attention thanks to its uncompromising treatment of rape, xenophobia, child abuse and other controversies. The creative presence of Presley Chweneyagae and Zenzo Ngqobe, who played, respectively, the eponymous central character and his vicious sidekick Butcher in ‘Tsotsi’, can’t have hurt. As co-author (Chweneyagae) and starring character (Ngqobe) in ‘Township Stories’, they plan to blaze a trail in film and theatre. However, their mentor, the play’s co-writer and director Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom, holds no such pretensions. ‘I just want to tell stories,’ says the 31-year-old former actor.

And what stories he has to tell. Abandoned by his mother at an early age and brought up in the townships by relatives who subjected him to daily physical abuse, the young Grootboom sought refuge in theatre. Since bursting onto the scene in 2002 , he has been dubbed the ‘Township Tarantino’ thanks to his unapologetic depiction of the African urban nightmare.

‘Township Stories’ may prove to be his crowning moment. Performed in Tswana, Zulu, Tsostitaal (street slang) and English by a company of 16 non-professional actors, it tells several overlapping stories, all set on the tough township streets. It’s a world of incredible savagery, heightened by the presence of a serial killer known as the ‘G-String Strangler’, and only occasionally punctuated with fleeting moments of tenderness.