A simple story set in a typical African village is how Sabelo Ndlovu and Menzi Mkhwane describe their two-hander, Pockets of Knowledge , which can be seen at the Durban University of Technology’s Steve Biko campus in Durban, from today until Friday.
The story tells the audience about the effect which a devestating event has on the lives of two young village boys, and their need to understand what has happened. They continuously look to their mentors — their late Chief Bab’Mantshongo and an exceptionally impactful teacher, Thishu’ Mazibuko — for answers to the growing contentions in the village.
Ndlovu and Mkhwane spent six months creating this piece of theatre last year. The actors visited high schools around Pietermaritzburg and Durban, and in remote areas in the interior of KwaZulu-Natal, to identify, what they describe as “a conflict in society which can be communicated on stage”.
The issues covered in the play include teenage pregnancies, rape, poverty and lack of concentration in academically challenged pupils. With education at the epicentre of the story, the production aims to illustrate how modern influences can submerge the principals of indigenous wisdom, and how hunger turns to greed.
The play itself is modelled on South Africa as a country, looking at what happens to a community and its people when leadership is displaced.
Sabelo and Mkhwane are both graduates from the Durban Uiversity of Technology (DUT) drama school, and in 2010 Ndlovu co-wrote and directed Fragmented Prism , a student production which premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
In the same year, Mkhwane, the son of celebrated theatre actor, creator and director Bheki Mkhwane, became one of four South Africans chosen to work in Holland as part of the Dutch production of Oliver Twist . He was then introduced into the Durban theatre scene with a production of Belly of the Beast, in which he performed alongside his father.
Ndlovu said their biggest challenge is funding, as they would love to perform the play in theatres throughout the country.
“Our vision was also to partner with the eThekwini Municipality and other stakeholders, such as the Department of Arts and Living Culture and the Department of Education, so that we could share this entertaining yet educational theatrical play with students,” he said.
“The production aims to stimulate pupils (and teachers) into finding alternative measures or solutions to the conflicts presented in the play, with the intention of having a forum-based exchange that will encourage a generation that is able to think critically, reason for itself and ascertain effective means to reach soluble ends without resorting to violence.”
Tickets for Pockets of Knowledge , which can be seen in the art gallery above the library daily at 7?pm, are R30 today and tomorrow, and R25 on Friday.
Bookings can be made by phoning 072?7167?950 or 083?3826?054.
— Arts Editor.
http://www.witness.co.za/index.php?showcontent&global%5B_id%5D=82675
13 Jun 2012
