'Woza Albert' revisited 20 years on
[caption id="attachment_40092" align="alignright" width="405"] WOZA 2014: Actors Siya Sukawuti, left, and Mandisi Shindo play various roles in 'Return of the Ancestors'[/caption]
RETURN OF THE ANCESTORS by Mike van Graan, directed by Mdu Kweyam, presented by Artscape (Gymnasium, until July 12)
THIS incisive political satire may not earn Mike van Graan any friends in parliament but it is likely to win over fed-up South Africans eager to hear truth spoken to power. It is fast, clever and at times extremely funny.
Last year there were four Van Graan works at the festival, as he was the inaugural festival playwright – a little like a poet laureate – and he is back this year on the Fringe with the premiere of his new work, Return of the Ancestors, as well as his 2013 Standard Bank Ovation Award winner, Rainbow Scars. Return of the Ancestors is loosely based on Woza Albert (Arise Albert) – from the 1980s which asked its audience what Jesus would find if he returned to South Africa – the "old" South Africa.
Van Graan's Return of the Ancestors asks rather what struggle heroes Steve Bantu Biko and Neil Aggett in turn would find if they could come back to our "new" South Africa.
What has changed in 20 years, asks Van Graan, and what did the sacrifices of people who died so that South Africa could become a democracy actually mean?
Even before we get there, why did the ancestors send Biko with Aggett, a white man and not an fallen icon, perhaps Chris Hani?
Even within these holy ranks, there may be dissension, it seems.
Return of the Ancestors is a fascinating piece, shot through with black humour – literally and figuratively – and covers so much of what is foul in this land on a trail that leads the two travelers to the font of power, as epitomised by Nkandla.
Echoing the roles played by actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona in Woza Albert, Mandisi Sindo and Siya Sikawuti play a variety of roles, using spoken word, mime, dance and song to great effect.
While most of the characterisation was spot on, one criticism: Sindo and Sikawuti's portrayals of a Jewish and Afrikaans South African were almost unrecognisable due to mangled accents. The headgear only gave a clue after I twigged that the purple pope's cap was a yarmulke and the akubra was actually a safari hat.
Mdu Kweyama, who also directed Van Graan's Brothers in Blood, keeps a tight rein on the pace, adeptly moving his human pieces from scene to scene on the theatrical chessboard to advance the action.
The props and set of wood, newspapers and car tyres are used in ingenious ways to flag different scenes on the road to Nkandla, highlighting different aspects of South Africa today that surely would disturb the ancestors.
"Change doesn't happen overnight," says the patient gogo in the opening scene, looking after her orphaned grandchild while she lives with a rasping TB cough and communal taps in shackland.
"20 years? It's a long, long night," replies Biko.
Is there hope for this land, or is it dead and buried too? The obvious answer is bleak and bitter but Van Graan's script reveals a more nuanced perspective, rainbow scars notwithstanding. It is wonderful theatre. - Gillian McAinsh
