“My Children! My Africa!” is a modern classic play that speaks of the power of the youth, education and hope.
Written by prolific theatre-maker and playwright Athol Fugard during the turbulent final days of the apartheid regime, “My Children! My Africa!” is a must-see theatre production, which will be staged at the Artscape Arena from May 12 until June 3.
Set in a township classroom in the Eastern Cape in 1984, an idealistic teacher attempts to instil a love of learning in his gifted pupil, but political unrest and the generational divide soon culminate in an explosive conflict with tragic consequences.
“My Children! My Africa! was written out of the darkest decade in our country’s history,” explained Fugard.
“It was a time when the prophecies of a bloodbath seemed to be coming true, when to have hope for the future seemed the height of idiocy.”
Directed and designed by Marcel Meyer, “My Children! My Africa!” stars Dobs Madotyeni as Mr M, the idealistic teacher.
The play also stars the two-time Fleur du Cap winner, Jenny Stead, who plays Isabel, the privileged white-school girl whose life becomes inextricably linked to Mr M and his star pupil Lungile Lallie, who is cast as Thami, Mr M’s protégé with revolutionary yearnings.
Speaking to IOL Entertainment, Meyer explained that the themes explored in the play are as relevant today as they were when the play was first staged over three decades earlier.
“This was a very important piece of theatre as the play spoke of what is wrong in the country at the time,” said Meyer.
“The country was burning. There was a lot of unrest in the country. It could have turned into a blood bath, or luckily for us, it didn't. Mandela was released and the country finally gained democracy.
“And the devastating thing about doing the play now in 2023 is, although we've come quite far in our 30 years of democracy, many of the arguments in the play are about access to education and access to books, are still as topical as when they were in 1989, and that is the tragic part of reviving this play.
“I’d wish that if we had done this play, we could do it like a period piece, and people wouldn't know what we were talking about because we'd moved that far away from how the country was in 1989.”
“My Children! My Africa!” forms part of Artscape’s annual school set work season.
“No playwright writes a play for anyone to read it. A play is a blueprint for actors, directors, and designers to make a living piece of theatre. And I think that's so important for young people to come to the theatre and see their prescribed play done the way it's meant to be.
“Covid has proved that without an audience, theatre cannot exist. Theatre is not TV, theatre is not film and theatre is not streaming. Theatre is us together in a room, interrogating what it means to be human, together in the same space in that moment of time.
“And it’s important for the kids to understand that a play is not a book: a play is a living, breathing thing, and it needs to be heard and felt and viscerally experienced in a theatre.
“So I think it's an incredible opportunity for young people and especially a play as powerful as this one with such a beautiful message of hope and future, about young people making a big difference in this country.
“They will also get to witness kids go through this incredible change, starting as kids, and they've grown up by the end of the play, and each of them with very different journeys on how they will make South Africa better for future generations,” added Meyer.
“My Children! My Africa!” will run at the Artscape Theatre from May 12 until June 3.
Tickets cost R100 and are available at Computicket.
“Tswalo”
Where: The Baxter
When: May 16 - 20.
“Tswalo”, from the multi-award-winning theatre duo Billy Langa and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, made its debut at the Market Theatre after touring locally and internationally.
It is a tale told through poetry and physical storytelling entwined to interrogate the rules that govern life on earth, such as power, creation, politics, connection and intuition, and the performers' expression of his source.
It is placed in a timeless space of existence, which explores the primary themes of being, chaos and beauty, blood and birth, and love and war in the same frame.
Ticket prices vary between R80 to R120.
“Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet”
Where: The Drama Factory
When: May 16 - 17.
Parel Vallei's Grade 11 Drama Class and the Senior Class from Helderberg Academy of Theatre will present the two Shakespearian tragedies: “Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet”.
These two plays form part of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, an international movement. Under the guidance of Darryl Spijkers (teacher, director, writer), the learners have created interesting interpretations of these Shakespearian classics.
Tickets cost R80.