It begins with Intsimbi nofela lwezandi | Sounds of skins and irons. Steady, cyclical percussion activates the space, welcoming audience members into the journey. Some sit, others move through the venue and take in the collective scene – soil and salt, the drone of voices, the low glow and flicker of candlelight.

Ezembewu | Of the Seeds, conceptualised and directed by Season 9 co-curator Mandla Mbothwe, is an immersive journey through a collection of interwoven images, songs, characters and performative moments.

Following Thabo Rapoo’s subtle, yet enduring percussion, Mhlaba Ndiyeke | Earth Leave Me Alone then surfaces the holder and excavator of the space, a figure (Anathi Conjwa) who uses ingoma to awaken and connect the various characters and elements in Ezembewu | Of the Seeds. Plagued by the constant pull of the earth, the soil upon which she moves is both a source of life and meaning, and a persistent burden.

“We seek to reclaim ourselves, our bodies, our history,” says the perpetual teacher-student (Tony Miyambo) in iDini | The Sacrifice. Haunted by archives, and unable to make sense of the present, he clings to his typewriters, the foreign appendages that they are, and communicates through the immaterial language of dreams and metaphor.

“If we are the stories we tell ourselves, what kinds of stories have we been telling ourselves?” he blurts out, nursing a typewriter like an infant on his back. It is only through the coarse rub of salt that he is able to find some respite.

The percussion rises and the collective focus moves to the troubled son (Xolisile Bongwana), faced with the burden of inherited knowledge and information, and unsure whether to retain or discard it. In Ukumumatha | The word for when you have something in your mouth and you can neither swallow, nor spit it out, water becomes a metaphor for memory. It is a moment of internal conflict rendered as frantic, frenetic choreography and moving always towards repair.

In iNimba | The Umbilical Cord, visible and invisible connections between parent (Sibahle Mangena) and child (Bongwana), earth and people, the ancestral and the living world are excavated. Here, the burden and possibility of responsibility and care are communicated through a striking duet – a holding and constraining, a pushing and pulling – that draws into a singular, significant scene of soil, fire, water and an inevitable letting go.

Loss gives way to rich possibility as the Qondiswa James-directed ensemble performance of Sizokutyala | We Are Here to Plant takes over. Here, stories are planted and nurtured in the soil, becoming dreams and possibilities, nurtured through song and slow, melodic performance, enriched by the contributions of the Duduza Serenade choir. Ultimately, it is the activity of nurturing one’s self and others – a distinct ensemble work that resonates strongly with the performances it exists alongside.

Indalo Stofile’s Skhukukazi | The Hen is a solo performance that, despite its brevity, manages to hold complex, universal notions of life, loss, death and community. Like the performance that precedes it, it is a distinct work that draws on and contributes to the greater performance programme it sits within. There is a cacophony of flailing ropes and enamel cups, the sounds of an absurd and arresting solo procession through the space by Stofile. Here, notions of motherhood, care and community sit alongside moments of profound loss and violence. The teacher-student returns, too, cleansed once more by salt, and lends a poignant narration to the scene. Ultimately, the soil becomes the final resting place of Skhukukazi and song charges the space once again. It is through an acknowledgment of life and death, loss and sacrifice, that a place of acceptance is finally reached.

The various realms, characters and performative vignettes that comprise Ezembewu | Of the Seeds ultimately speak to first translations – of soil, seeds, words, birth, growth and loss – threaded together by an aesthetic of dreams, both of the waking and the sleeping life.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

INTSIMBI NOFELA LWEZANDI | SOUNDS OF SKINS AND IRONS

PERFORMER | Thabo Rapoo
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Mandla Mbothwe

MHLABA NDIYEKE | EARTH LEAVE ME ALONE

PERFORMER | Anathi Conjwa
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Mandla Mbothwe

IDINI | THE SACRIFICE

PERFORMER | Tony Bonani Miyambo
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Mandla Mbothwe

UKUMUMATHA | THE WORD FOR WHEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING IN YOUR MOUTH AND YOU CAN NEITHER SWALLOW, NOR SPIT IT OUT

PERFORMER | Xolisile Bongwana
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Mandla Mbothwe

INIMBA | THE UMBILICAL CORD

PERFORMER | Sibahle Mangena
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Mandla Mbothwe

SIZOKUTYALA | WE ARE HERE TO PLANT

PERFORMERS | Duduza Serenade, Zaza Cala, Khutjo Green, Anathi Conjwa, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu, Muzi Shili, Sibahle Mangena & Kamogelo Molobye
CONCEPTUALISER & DIRECTOR | Qondiswa James

SKHUKUKAZI | THE HEN

CONCEPTUALISER & PERFORMER | Indalo Stofile