Mbongeni Ngema: Plays About Apartheid

Playwrights

• Mbongeni Ngema (born 1955) is a South African playwright, composer, choreographer, theatrical director, and composer.
• Ngema is known for plays about the experiences of Black South Africans under apartheid.
• He worked as a manual labourer and guitarist before acting in theatre groups in the late 1970s.
• "Woza Albert!"(1981) is a satirical play he co-wrote with Percy Mtwa, imagining Jesus Christ's second coming in South Africa, where the government tries to exploit and then banishes him.
• "Asinamali!"(1983) addresses police violence, forced family separations, and racist laws experienced by prisoners, using music and comedy.
• Sarafina!(1987) is a musical about a black teenager becoming a revolutionary in the 1976 Soweto student uprisings, co-written with Hugh Masekela.
• "Township Fever" (1990) was inspired by a violent railway worker strike.
• "Mama! The Musical of Freedom" (1994), based on Ngema's experiences with his theatre troupe Committed Artists, tells the story of youngsters joining the troupe, with a character based on Winnie Mandela.
• Ngema's other works include a movie adaptation of Sarafina!(1992), choir direction for "The Lion King"(1994), and the play "The House of Shaka"(2005).
• Percy Mtwa grew up in Wattville, Benoni and excelled in classical novels, poetry, and visual arts. but had to leave school at 17 to support his family.
• He initially gained recognition as a singer and dancer.
• In 973, Mtwa acted in Destiny Calls, written by childhood friend Gilroy Dlukula.
• In 1979, Mtwa joined Gibson Kente's company, acting as a singer/dancer in Mama and the Load.
• Mtwa co-founded Earth Players with Mbongeni Ngema in 1980 and wrote Woza Albert!, joining Barney Simon as director
• In 1982, Mtwa and Ngema were interviewed in a BBC series Everyman, which was focused on Woza Albert!
• Mtwa wrote and directed Bopha! as a Market Theatre and Earth Players collaboration (1985-1986) and became a resident director at the Market Theatre.
• Barney Simon (1932-1995) was a South African theatre director and a key figure in the development of indigenous South African black drama.
• From 1976, he served as the artistic director of the non-racial Market Theatre in Johannesburg from its founding until his death.
• Simon co-founded Johannesburg's Market Theatre in 1976, which was South Africa's first multiracial cultural centre and a hub for the country's theatre movement.
• Athol Fugard's plays, directed a film for the BBC of Nadine Gordimer's story "City Lovers", and worked with Jean-Claude Carrière on the French translation for Peter Brook's The Suit was first to be staged for many plays by Athol Fugard

Context: Socio-political and economic background

• In the 1970s, Black South African theatre developed a radical political consciousness.
• Younger generations sought theatre reflecting political aspirations after the Soweto protests of 1976, leading to the rise of South African Protest Theatre.
• Zakes Mda said that protest theatre makes a statement of disapproval, appealing to the oppressor's conscience, but it is a theatre of complaint that never offers any solutions.
• Athol Fugard's early works with the Serpent Players are included in this category, e.g., Sizwe Bansi is Dead, The Island, The Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act.
• Black playgoers sought to find Protest Theatre too complex, not proud enough, or admirable enough to represent black sufferings, values and aspirations because its main characters were not admirable.
• Theatre of Resistance emerged with the Black Consciousness movement, aiming to re-affirm black identity in the face of apartheid.
• Black consciousness aimed to create a direct link between cultural and political liberation, promoting unity among black people.
• Theatre of Resistance aimed to mobilize the oppressed with the goal to fight against the oppression.
• Agitprop which is the use of propaganda and agitational techniques. it served as a vehicle for altering perceptions among the oppressed.

Agitprop and Protest Theatre: Definitions

• 'Agitprop' merges 'agitation' and 'propaganda', which means that it attempts to propagate a message and agitate for action on the part of the oppressed to change their situation.
• 'Agitation' is stirring public opinion on a social or political issue through marches and articles.
• 'Propaganda' spreads information to support a cause, which has acquired a negative connotation as it is the spread of false or exaggerated claims by totalitarian regimes.
• Protest theatre evokes an emotional response from the audience, making them re-evaluate opinions.
• It refers to theatre opposing political and economic inequities, used in South Africa against apartheid.

Protest Theatre: Aims and Characteristics

• Protest Theatre aims to change/reform society, educate and highlight topical issues, and involve trade unions.
• It contains political statements, voicing frustrations and compelling audience sympathy.
• Some plays are scripted/workshopped. But most importantly there is focus on what should be unlearnt (apartheid).
• Protest Theatre is done by the people for the people.
• Open staging is an inclusive venue
• It uses slogans, posters, and close actor/audience interactions.

Context and Influences of Woza Albert!

• Woza Albert! is a satirical protest play by Mtwa, Ngema, and Simon, work shopped and performed at the Market Theatre in 1983.
• Written during apartheid, it addresses inequality, revealing the feelings of black people.
• The play imagines Christ coming to South Africa and explores faith in Johannesburg.
• The play was written after calls to end laws preventing black and white artists working together, with Grotowski as an influence which meant the actors wore minimal clothing to illustrate the use of body and its lack of shame.
• The Dutch arrival in the Cape in 1652 marked the start of oppression towards non-whites. and also the formation of The National Party who came into power in 1948 whose succession lead to more political laws like the Group Areas Act being passed in 1950
• Barney Simon co-founded the Market Theatre in 1976, facing government threats for allowing multi-racial casts/audiences.
• Simon was a well-known ‘workshopper' who worked with Athol Fugard and Nadine Gordimer.
• The themes are corruption and conflict, focusing on how apartheid has stolen lives and leads to hopelessness.
• "Drama gives voice to the voiceless"
• The Sharpeville Massacre, Soweto Uprisings and The Boycott was three major events.
• The dramatists went to Cape Town to interview people about Jesus.
• The play was influenced by the bible with themes of prison isolation, political imprisonment, politics, Christianity and urban experiences

Influences: Political Imprisonment and Religion

• The dramatists had experience in solitary confinement, leading to the detention scene idea.
• The Bible showed Jesus as a freedom fighter, making "Morena" more relatable and similar to the political issues (apartheid).
• The play explores if Morena will visit South Africa, the doubt about his arrival in a country stricken by poverty.
• It addresses their beliefs with the determination to survive in a hostile environment.
• Christianity was seen as a source of hope at the time in the townships because of the conflicts happening there.

Politics, Workshop Theatre, and Urban Experiences

• PAC members were imprisoned: Politics influenced the dramatists as they wanted to shed light on the effects on all South Africans due to apartheid.
• Dramatists were influenced by Grotowski, highlighting action, gesture, and lighting.
• The effect of Mtwa and Mgema's conception of the nature of drama was that they also released the ability of the actors as creative's
• Woza Albert! contains material directly from the lives of the actors.
• They interviewed people on the streets to find characters
• Urban Experiences and life also helped influence Steve Biko's death, Sharpville Massacre.

Playmaking process and Background

• Playmaking emerged in the 1970s in South Africa.
• A participatory and communal process.
• Can use song, mime, dance and political sloganeering around which the idea of the performance is developed.

The actors arrest and rehearsals

• The actors were arrested by the Special Branch while working on the play which gave them them opportunity to put time to use for their next production.
• After they were released the two actors invited Barney Simon to help with a six week workshop that involved the actors most recent and past interviews
• They went to Johannesburg, asked Mannie Manim at the Market Theatre for space and asked 40 people including Barney Simon to watch their rehearsals.

Play Production and Barney Simon's Input

• The production is based on oral tradition, the content is spontaneous and immediate and it occurs in relation to the audience with actors observing and improvising.
• Simon had a tremendous input because as a white man during apartheid, he was more politically correct which meant he was acting at the scribe of the play
• He gave the playwrights tips and tricks to help with the act, to adapt the actors and help with the environment.

Style, Genre and Language

• Protest theatre in the play is politically intended to inspire political with political content
• The play needs to portray what injustice is
• The performance style is primarily loud, energetic, larger than life, exaggerated and very physical.
• The language of the play combines of a the cultures and backgrounds of South Africa.
• Also by using languages this helps the imagery provoke so internatonal views are heard.

Themes and Symbols

• Society is analysed and reflected upon: Which highlights freedom, human right and the injustice
• The end of the one episode would introduce the beginning of the next one.
• Grotowski'sand Techniques the play is incorporated: with their all the actors bodies tell the story.

Physical and Poor Theatre

• The training for physical theatre requires a vigorous programme - that includes: improvisation, contact improvisation, verbal dynamics and contemporary dance.
• Poor theatre can be described as 'stripped down' to the essential requirements with which included: the actor, training for physical theatre, exercise
• In physical theatre the director needs to stay true to the playwright's intentions of what style of play they intend to make.
• Also to maintain a holistic training for the acter
• The first script came four month after their 1st production
• Each of the performers would adapt certain audiences.
• Direct contact with the audience: intimate audience/actor relationship.
• Actors portray many roles clown noses to intimidate the white bosses.

Actor-Audience Relationship

• South African audiences understand because it is their history as they lived through it
• The dramatist stopped the audience from laughing in its first production that was performed in Soweto due to full to how relatable to the setting was.