HOUSEBOY

Over the course of a 120-minute durational performance, founder of The Centre for the Less Good Idea and co-curator of its 7th Season, William Kentridge presents a staged interpretation of the Cameroonian novel Houseboy.

Through the work of an ensemble cast comprising the various characters throughout the 1956 novel by Ferdinand Oyono, Houseboy explores themes of colonialism, trauma, and narrative history in a production that merges music, language, translation and drawing.

Houseboy is the sum of its parts, with each aspect of the performance remaining singular and vital to the overall narrative. A large backdrop produced by Kentridge – palm trees and dense foliage in black – sets the scene, and each character is present on stage throughout the play. Music, myriad live percussive sounds from just off stage, both punctuates and set the pace for the narrative.

At the heart of Houseboy, though, is language and the written word. Here, language is resistance and soft rebellion, and the presence of the diary – the primary vessel for the story – is a means of creating a record. In a moment early on in the play, when the protagonist, Toundi Ondoua, reads the diary of his master, he discovers accounts of events that happened to him, but which he has no memory of. It is the start of his preoccupation with bearing witness to history. Considering his position as houseboy to colonial authority, he occupies a role that is perfectly positioned for unfettered observation.

Later, once he has been keeping his own diary for some time, he declares: “I don’t think I’ll ever forget what I’ve seen”. It is a vital moment in the play. He has begun to write, to remember, to archive and to actively witness so that he can no longer forget. Ultimately, it is an essential statement about agency, language and post-colonial memory, those enduring themes and points of interrogation that are central to the novel and which are brought so vividly to life through the staged production of Houseboy.

– David Mann

CREDITS:

TEXT | Ferdinand Oyono
DIRECTOR | William Kentridge
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR | Phala Ookeditse Phala
PERFORMERS | Mncedisi Shabangu, Alfred Motlhapi, Nji Alain, Sello Ramolahloane, William Harding, Antony Coleman, Sue Pam-Grant, Buhle Mazibuko & Sibahle Mangena
MUSICIANS | Micca Manganye & Volley Nchabeleng
CHORUS DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu
ADDITIONAL VOICES | Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu & Phala Ookeditse Phala
COSTUME DESIGNERS | Greta Goiris, Emmanuelle Erhart & SO Academy Costume Mentees