ZONDO REQUIEM
Zondo Requiem uses Mozart’s tuba mirum requiem as well as South Africa’s Zondo Commission of Inquiry as textual and theoretical bases in order to explore, by way of live performance and pre-recorded sound, the notion, form and function of judgement in contemporary society.
It begins with absurdity channeled through a familiar scene, the court. One by one, there is an introduction of bodies and voices, individual commitments to the truth. Nhlanhla Mahlangu plays the part of the judge, silent and ambivalent, eating his (literal) cake all through the proceedings, while Dan Selsick serves as conductor.
What follows is high drama orchestrated to a swelling soundscape. The scene devolves into a food fight, a mockery of the court. In the end, has any truth been sought out or pursued? Or was it simply a garish display of gluttony and inefficiency? It is this orchestral collapse of the court, this circus of proceedings and failing decorum that Zondo Requiem zeroes in on to brilliant ends.
– David Mann
CREDITS:
CONCEPTUALISER & COMPOSITOR | Dan Selsick
PERFORMERS | Zandi Hlatshwayo, Molebogeng Phiri, Buhle Mazibuko, Sibahle Mangena & Asanda Hanabe
CHORUS DIRECTOR | Nhlanhla Mahlangu
COSTUME DESIGNERS | SO Academy Costume Mentees
SOUNDS OF LIMPOPO
Sounds of Limpopo is a two-man musical performance which sees the use of instruments and bodies alike being used to both replicate and pay tribute to the myriad sounds and narratives of South Africa’s northernmost province.
Originally based on the idea of lekgotla or ‘the meeting’, Sounds of Limpopo is focussed on the sounds and rhythmic patterns that exist in the natural world, explored using an array of instruments, bodily percussion and communication through music.
Birdsong, the sound of the wind, the trickling of a stream, conversation, laughter and more are performed and looped in real-time, layering sound and music together to form a vivid sonic tapestry across this 35-minute performance that is equal parts immersive and invigorating, alive with the sounds of Limpopo.
– David Mann
CREDITS:
CONCEPTUALISERS & PERFORMERS | Micca Manganye & Volley Nchabeleng
UMTHANDAZO
An ensemble cast, well-considered costume design, and striking musicality come together in the 14-minute performance of Umthandazo.
Taking its lead from the oft-overlooked victims of the 2012 Marikana Massacre, Umthandazo employs an all-women cast to unpack the lives of the widows, children and mothers of the Marikana victims, who have come to collect the spirits and mourn the dead.
Singing takes the form of prayer, tribute, mourning, perseverance and more, as performers shift between the roles of mourner and victim, and the women take turns sifting through the personal effects – boxing gloves, suit jackets, a gumboot, a bouquet of flowers – of those lost to the mines, to memory, to murder.
It is through these short, affecting vignettes that we can better understand the lives of those lost, the human cost of labour, and the heavy weight of grief for those left behind.
– David Mann
CREDITS:
DIRECTOR | Faniswa Yisa
PERFORMERS | Asanda Hanabe, Buhle Mazibuko, Molebogeng Phiri, Sibahle Mangena, Zandi Hlatshwayo & Elma Motloenya
COSTUME DESIGNERS | SO Academy Costume Mentees