April 7, 2006
By Ndaba Dlamini
TURN back the clock and experience those groovy but politically charged times of Sophiatown in the 1950s. This is the hook Nongogo uses to draw in its audience.
The play, about the complexities of black urban life, is now showing at the Barney Simon Theatre, at the Market Theatre complex. Written by Athol Fugard during his early years with Port Elizabeth's Serpent Players, Nongogo revolves around life in a township front-room shebeen, operated by an enigmatic woman known as "Queenie".
Queenie's past is shrouded in a dark cloud, which is eventually dispersed by a young travelling salesman, Johnny, who inadvertently storms into her life with a suitcase full of table clothes. Queenie is swept off her feet by the earnest young man, and she immediately decides to change her home decor – and her life – to please him.
Playing out alongside the budding romance, are the harsh realities of township life, revealed in the half-witted Blackie; Queenie's side-kick, Sam; and the fertile Patrick. Blackie, homeless and socially disoriented, has taken a vow to "protect" Queenie. He brings stolen gifts to please her.
Disruptive and morally decadent, Sam, Queenie's "fixer" and former pimp, exerts a vicious presence in her life. He tries to stifle her growing affections for Johnny, which Queenie has tried to bury. Meanwhile Patrick spends his time trying to find a name for his umpteenth unborn child. In an effort to escape the realities of his growing family responsibilities, he drowns himself in alcohol.
Although it is set in the 1950s, Nongogo has much to say about the present realities of urban South Africa – thwarted aspirations, self-destructiveness and the ticking time bomb of early sexual abuse. And despite the moral poverty of some of the characters, the play is a warm portrayal of township life, its people and their idiosyncrasies and weaknesses.
It is directed by John Matshikiza and performed by a highly talented cast composed of Lindelani Buthelezi, Mncedisi Shabangu, Sibusiso Mamba, Siphiwe Hlabangane and Warona Seane as Queenie. Nongogo was first performed at Johannesburg's Bantu Men's Social Centre in the politically turbulent late-1950s.
In the mid-1970s it was first performed outside South Africa at Sheffield's Crucible Studio, in England; it went on to be performed at the Manhattan Theatre, in the United States.
Matshikiza says Nongogo and other plays by Fugard testify to "a young, white-in-a-black-landscape poet's flawed, awed exploration of the world that we are all fatally, imperfectly coming to terms with now".
"Revisiting Nongogo here, in the new, unresolved South Africa of scattered, multi-patterned, over-patented, shattered, flattened dreams is like revisiting a love of the past."
Matshikiza, a renowned writer and actor, was born in Johannesburg and grew up in London and Lusaka. He began his career in theatre, television, radio and film in London, before he returned to South Africa in 1992.
His theatre credits include seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Glasgow Citizens Company and the Royal National Theatre Company, in the United Kingdom. His own plays include Prophets in the Black Sky, which was first performed at the Edinburgh Festival before going on a tour of Britain in 1985 and 1986. It came to the Market Theatre in 1992.
On 19 April a Nongogo benefit performance for The Actors Centre, a non-profit organisation based at the Civic Theatre, will be staged and all proceeds will be donated to the organisation. The Actors Centre relies on funding from the national lottery and other such organisations.
Tickets for the benefit show can be booked through The Actors Centre on 011 877 6843. The R100 ticket price includes wine and snacks.
Nongogo is on at the Barney Simon Theatre until 30 April on Tuesday to Sunday. Performances start at 8.15 pm. The Sunday shows start at 3.15 pm. For more information, contact the Market Theatre publicity department on 011 832 1641.
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