The Magnet Theatre production Voices Made Night brings the surreal magic of world-renowned Mozambican writer Mia Couto to the Baxter from 28 February to 23 March.

Voices Made Night is adapted from the short stories Vozes Anoitecidas by the world-renowned Mozambican writer Mia Couto. Director Mark Fleishman has assembled a formidable cast and creative team to bring to life this reworking of Couto’s wonderfully imagistic tales. The production scooped top honours in three categories at the 2001 FNB Vita, for Best Director, Best Actress and Best Lighting Design.

The ensemble is made up of Jennie Reznek, Faniswa Yisa, Mfundo Tshazibane, Dann-Jaques Mouton, Thando Doni, Chiminae Ball and Richard September.

"When we first read Mia's stories we were struck by the visually exciting metaphoric images that provide perfect material for our physical style of theatre,” explains Fleishman. “His writing is a perfect match for Magnet’s style. The language is dense and multi-layered, providing ample opportunity to tease out the images while making full use of the physical space of the theatre in a way which we hope is profound and arresting for the audience.”

The work of Mia Couto, widely regarded as one of Mozambique’s leading literary luminaries and the most prominent writer in Portuguese-speaking Africa, has been published in more than 20 countries and in several languages. In many of his texts, he undertakes to recreate the Portuguese language by infusing it with regional vocabulary and structures from Mozambique, thus producing a new model for the African narrative. Stylistically, his writing is influenced by magical realism. Critics have commended Couto's prose for its mix of standard Portuguese with the fantastical hallmarks of the oral storytelling culture common to African peoples.

Filled with hope and creativity, the stories are told through the rich and dynamic imagination of its characters. They confront head-on the difficulties facing post-colonial societies in the process of transformation, at the same time offering unique insight into the psychic damage which has been the legacy of both colonial history and the wars of de-colonisation.

Voices Made Night previews at the Baxter Flipside on 28 February, opens on 1 March and runs until 23 March at 8.15pm nightly. Ticket prices are R90 (previews), R100 (Mondays to Thursdays) and R120 over weekends (Fridays and Saturdays). Booking is through Computicket