In conjunction with the exhibition William Kentridge: In Praise of Shadows, The Broad and REDCAT co-presented the first global performance of Houseboy, developed at The Centre for the Less Good Idea and first performed as part of its 7th Season in 2021. 

Based on the 1956 novel by Cameroonian diplomat Ferdinand Oyono, the performance is directed by William Kentridge and explores themes of historical participation, archival memory, and post-colonial identity. Upending accounts of colonial history told by colonisers, Houseboy looks at the same period through the vantage-point of the colonised, specifically through the eyes of Toundi Ondoua who is forced to serve a colonial household.

The Centre for the Less Good Idea’s staged interpretation of Oyono's novel creates an immersive multimedia experience that muses on agency, memory and trauma.

PHOTOGRAPHER | Zivanai Matangi