Magnet Theatre to Stage 23 YEARS, A MONTH AND 7 DAYS and KUDU

One of South Africa's longest standing and most celebrated theatre companies, Magnet Theatre, presents two new works: 23 YEARS, A MONTH AND 7 DAYS by Nwabisa Plaatjie and KUDU by Lwanda Sindaphi. The productions are the culmination of Magnet's year-long theatre-making internship programme.

The two emerging theatre-makers have collaborated with performers from Magnet's third-year Training Programme to create two provocative productions that tackle some of the most contentious issues unfolding in the South African narrative. These productions also celebrate the culmination of work for Magnet's trainees.

23 YEARS, A MONTH AND 7 DAYS prides itself on being contemporary, womxn-led, and multilingual. Performed in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, this moving piece uses the language of storytelling and physical theatre to engage with the complex struggles faced by womxn immersed in social and political environments that are systematically violent. It is set between contemporary South Africa's higher learning institutions and Potters Field, a poverty-stricken place where the citizens have lost all hope and wait anxiously for their deaths. The themes of migration and self-actualisation are explored. A young womxn, Nontyatyambo, experiences conflict between her identity and her environment. She must give herself permission to take up space, to define and re-define her position and thus how she envisions her life and her society.

Plaatjie comments on the production:

Dealing with migration, I don't want to enforce and limit myself to the stereotype of poor black from the rural areas who goes to the city, so I created Potters Field as a place that reflects the struggles that are also present in places outside rural areas. The other thing is that I needed a play that gives attention to a female voice that is not necessarily revolutionary; the subject is not a hero but she is human, she is present and her experiences are acknowledged.

KUDU is set in the year 2030. The amaXhosa nation has taken over the Eastern Cape in an attempt to utilise the land for their own prosperity. Meanwhile, three Khoi-Coloured descendants and their ageing cow are migrating to the Eastern Cape. The drama centres on their encounter with Intaba KaNdoda, a poverty-stricken community once ruled by the Khoi chief Ndoda. The Khoi-Coloured descendants, having heard stories of how chief Ndoda was killed in a land dispute, have come to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. They have arrived to take back the land from the amaXhosa.

Say Sindaphi of on the inspiration for the production:

I've been reading a book by David Robbins called ON THE BRIDGE OF GOODBYE. In the book, there's this quote about genocide which I find relevant to KUDU, 'Physical genocide that's something that everyone knows. But what about spiritual genocide? The genocide of consciousness, of language, of culture. That's what I want to write about: about someone who looks like his own people, but is only a shell. Inside, he is like a zombie.' The play is about people reclaiming their own piece of land reclaiming their customs, their culture, their languages and their spirituality. It's people fighting to be acknowledged not as extinct but as existing.

Both productions have been workshopped with their shared cast, Beviol Swartz, Emmanuel Ntsamba, Livie Ncanywa, Luthando Mvandaba, Lwando Magwaca, Meagan Booysen, Natasha Gana and Zizipho Quluba, and feature design by Craig Leo. The production manager for both plays is Themba Stewart, with Zukisani Nongogo serving as project manager.

Magnet Theatre has been at the forefront of the theatre industry for twenty seven years, creating ground-breaking educational programmes and productions that have toured to acclaim nationally and abroad, across four continents and 24 international festivals. Through funding from the National Lotteries Commission, Lwanda and Nwabisa spent 2016 at Magnet Theatre as theatre-making interns, mentored by reputable directors Jennie Reznek and Mark Fleishman.

The Theatre-making Internship Programme invited two emerging theatre-maker/directors to spend a year with Magnet trainees from the Fulltime Training and Job Creation Programme. Its goal is to give emerging theatre-makers/directors the opportunity to create a theatre product under the mentorship of professional directors in a safe environment where they are creatively free and not restricted by the need to battle for financial survival.

23 YEARS, A MONTH AND 7 DAYS runs at Magnet Theatre from 10 - 12 November at 19:30, with a 14:00 matinee on 12 November. KUDU runs from 1 - 3 December at 19:30, with a 14:00 matinee on 3 Deember. Tickets, costing R30 - R60 for each production, can be booked through Webtickets.

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