Season 6 was co-curated by architect and urban designer Thiresh Govender and dancer and choreographer Sello Pesa of Ntsoana ContemporaryTheatre, alongside founder William Kentridge and co-animateurs Bronwyn Lace and Phala Ookeditse Phala.
QUBULA – A Deep Red Chant!
[FULL Performance can be seen here: https://vimeo.com/371844617]
In Qubula, the many possibilities of a single story are picked apart and explored through language, perspective, movement and more.
Conceptualised and performed by collaborators Nhlanhla Mahlangu and Catrin Dowd, Qubula forms part of Mahlangu’s ongoing ‘Chant’ body of work and tells the myriad tales of a character in pursuit of joy, purpose, and the good life by way of vocation or, at the very least, through sheer hard work.
Opening with a seated and suited-up character with his back to the audience, and the precarious show of a double-bassist dragging her instrument into place across a concrete floor, Qubula sets a curious scene at first. Low strokes on the double-bass and itinerant mumbling bring about a darker atmosphere before the seated character spills out of his chair, revealing a dishevelled man – belt and buttons undone leaving his belly exposed. This is where the story begins.
Through the use of live music by Dowd and the fractured and affecting storytelling of Mahlangu, Qubula weaves together a complex and devastating narrative gathered from the fragments of working life in South Africa.
There is a scene, halfway into the performance, that sees Mahlangu embodying the effects of work and laborious ritual on the body and the spirit. He is singing, singing, singing! – his voice growing louder and higher before whipping his body into a frenzy of frantic screaming and shaking. It is the distillation of countless memories and narratives embedded in the body and it is a scene that is simultaneously rapturous and terrifying, driving to the very heart of the performance and of its audience.
The story (or stories) being told in Qubula can easily be read as belonging to Johannesburg – the ever-shifting migrant city built up and kept moving by the dreams and bloody-minded pursuits of its many people. The broader question we are left with, though, is what we lose or leave behind as a result of this journey towards a certain kind of life. A journey that, ultimately, is as long as life itself.
Conceptualised & performed by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd
Directed by | Gerard Bester
Music by | Nhlanhla Mahlangu & Catrin Dowd (double bass)
Cinematography & Editing by | Noah Cohen
Writing by | David Mann
Photography | Zivanai Matangi