Based on the true story that rocked the nation and
shocked the world, Lara Foot Newton’s critically acclaimed Tshepang comes
to the Baxter Sanlam Studio for two weeks only. Since it was first
performed in South Africa in 2003, the play has
touched the hearts of theatre lovers all over the globe.
Foot Newton once again
directs Mncedisi Shabangu, who reprises his role as narrator and sculptor
Simon, and newcomer Nonceba Constance Didi who plays Ruth in this haunting
and uplifting masterpiece of redemption. Renowned for his unique style of
physical theatre, Shabangu received the 2003 Fleur du Cap Best Actor award
for his performance.
The simplicity and symbolism of Gerhard Marx’s
award-winning scenography and design creates a visual and evocative
backdrop for the story. In 2002 he teamed up with Foot Newton in an
artistic collaboration entitled duckrabbit. Their production of Hear and
Now toured South Africa and Sweden
in 2005. The team’s short film And there in the Dust
has won six international film awards, including two South African Film
and Television Awards - one for Best Short Film and the other for Best
Screenwriter for a Short Film.
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After its limited run at the Baxter, Tshepang
transfers to the Market Theatre in Johannesburg
for three performances only from 6 to 8 February, before embarking on its
Canadian tour, which kicks off at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto
from 18 to 21 February, followed by Montreal
and Ottawa.
In 2001 South Africa was
devastated by the news of the brutal rape of nine-month-old baby Tshepang
in Louisvaleweg, a small town in the Northern Cape, leaving behind scars
which still penetrate today. Once the story hit local and international
headlines, it was as if the scab was torn off a festering wound as
hundreds of similar stories suddenly surfaced via the media - each equally
horrific.
Inspired by this shocking true story, Lara responded to the desperate
situation by starting to write the play in 2002, based on extensive
research from media articles and related material and a deeper
investigation into both the physical and socio-economic landscape where
events such as these occur. Rather than pointing fingers and finding
unsubstantiated answers, the play draws the viewer into the complexities
and contradictions that surround these events.
She explains, “While searching for meaning in the incomprehensible
brutality of this heinous and senseless act of brutality, I wanted the
play to bring insight to the audience and, perhaps, in its small way, even
offer some sort of healing as well.”
Tshepang became an
international success as it presented a rare and necessary foray into a
world that few have seen before. It draws on a South African style of
story-telling, combining striking visual imagery with an African sense of
magic realism while cleverly and sensitively layering the story with
complex psychological and personal issues. Although the topic may be
brutal, the way it is handled is sensitive, even poetic, earning the
production praise from audiences and critics around the globe.
While the content of the play is influenced or
motivated by factual evidence, the story is purely fictional, weaving
together twenty thousand stories - the number of reported child rapes in
South Africa per year. Tshepang is ultimately a
story of love, forgiveness and coming to terms with a devastation of this
magnitude.
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