South African stories shock, uplift
At the start of Amajuba, Tshallo Chokwe announces, "Back home, there is nothing special about our stories, but tonight we will tell them."
At the start of
Amajuba
, Tshallo Chokwe announces, "Back home, there is nothing special about our stories, but tonight we will tell them."
Sadly, in South Africa, the five stories told by the cast probably aren't special. But here, at the Annenberg Center, they are still shocking, not least because of the universality of some of their elements. When Jabulile Tshabalala says of violence-wracked Soweto that she "hated this country where we go to more funerals than weddings in our lives," it doesn't take a great leap to land in Philadelphia, which saw nearly a murder a day in 2006.
The vignettes are narrated in succession by each of the actors, who lived them. This is by now a hackneyed format, but the tales are told with an openness that helps the production mostly rise above confessional theater, and it doesn't hurt that the stories are engrossing. Written in Afrikaans, English, Peddi, Xhosa and Zulu, the script's linguistic melange forces the audience to listen closely to each word.
Abandoned and starving at 8 years old, Bongeka Mpongwana lives in a shack at the edge of her neighborhood. A "colored" child in a black township, Roelf Matlala is beaten daily by a resentful teacher and cannot leave home without fearing for his life. Phillip Tindisa's family is forced to move from its village, and loses a father in the process.
Tshabalala ducks gangs and violence in Soweto, unsuccessfully. Chokwe joins a "dance and drama club" and discovers it's a front for a clandestine youth resistance group.
The narratives avoid being bogged down by tragedy with a mixture of dance, traditional songs, and a full range of human emotion. Though it's poignant and wrenching when the buoyant Tindisa discovers his father is departing the family - taking away one plastic bag full of his belongings a day - he runs as fast as he can everywhere he goes, and has a smile and an answer for anyone who asks him about his life: "It's fine!" Even when it's not, he makes it so in order to stay afloat.
The least successful story is Tshabalala's. Her segment has some fine moments, but becomes maudlin with the reenactment of a violent assault that feels more exploitive than expository. Though it is certainly bold of Tshabalala to subject herself to reliving this moment every evening, its tone is out of keeping with the rest of the stories.
Director Yael Farber brings out the best in this talented cast. As Matlala pitches shovels full of dry dirt across the stage, its dust rises and engulfs the audience, closing the distance between here and there, then and now.
Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise
Created and directed by Yael Farber in collaboration with the cast, musical arrangement of traditional songs by the cast, lighting by Tim Boyd.
Cast: Bongeka Mpongwana, Roelf Matlala, Phillip "Tipo" Tindisa, Jabulile Tshabalala, Tshallo Chokwe. Playing at: Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Harold Prince Theater, 3680 Walnut St. Through Sunday. Tickets: $38 and $44. Information: 215-898-3900 or
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