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Mbongeni Ngema’s historic show comes to The Market Theatre...
Following the triumphs of its world premiere run at the 2013 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and its ground-breaking seasons in Zululand, Swaziland and Pretoria, Mbongeni Ngema’s thrilling new stage narrative, The Zulu, continues its South African tour at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg from 18 September – 3 November 2013.
Presented by Committed Artists Foundation in association with the Market Theatre Foundation, The Zulu is funded by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF). The production is produced by Africa Ngema, directed by Christopher John and designed by Sarah Roberts.
The Zulu sees Mbongeni Ngema, one of the icons of South African theatre, returning to the stage as an actor for the first time in 27 years. The production stands as a major event on our cultural calendar, providing an unforgettable opportunity for audiences of all ages to come face-to-face with the stirring background of the historic Zulu Nation.
“The Zulu offers a tour de force performance from Mbongeni Ngema who proves without doubt that, after his absence from actual stage performances for many years, he’s still got what it takes to be a compelling and vigorous actor and storyteller,” wrote leading arts doyenne, Caroline Smart, Editor of ArtSmart website, after seeing the show in Grahamstown.
“Delightfully dynamic, Ngema personalises the grand narrative and highlights the human quality of national histories with the skill and experience only he can master,” enthused Percy Mabandu in City Press.
“A performance fit for a king.. Compulsory viewing for all, especially the young,” wrote Dave Savides in Eyethu Baywatch.
Directed by Christopher John and designed by Sarah Roberts, The Zulu is produced by Africa Ngema and presented by Committed Artists Foundation in partnership with SABC1 with funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF).
Famed for the string of international stage block-busters he has created and produced, including Asinamali, Sarafina!, Magic at 4 AM, Mama, The House of Shaka, Lion of the East, among others, multi-award-winning Mbongeni Ngema last appeared onstage as an actor 27 years ago, in a production of the internationally celebrated Woza Albert.
Now South Africa’s master of theatre and founder of the longstanding, black-owned Committed Artists Company has tapped into his own richly-nurtured background of traditional story-telling, learned as a small child from his great grandmother. He has crafted a spell-binding one-man show that melds memories of his childhood, spent in the heart of Zululand, with the grandeur of his heritage, bringing vividly to life the historic panoply of the Zulu nation.
“The Zulu follows the story of my musical of the same title, only in more depth,” says Ngema. “My new show has been in the creative pipeline for several years. It is inspired by the experiences I had as a small child, listening to the wonderful stories of heroic deeds that my great-grandmother, oka Mkhulutshana Manqele, shared with me. Her skills as a story-teller kept a wealth of our history alive, both about our family background and our proud roots as members of the Zulu nation. It is due to her that I have followed a career in theatre.”
At the opening of The Zulu, Ngema tells how his great-grandmother got her name from her father, who was in King Dingaan’s regiment of Umkhulutshana. When Ngema grew up in the hills of Nongoma in Zululand, she was a very old woman. She was blind, and in her mind’s eye she remembered pre-colonial Zulu life.
“No one knows how old my great-grandmother was, but from all the historic events she referred to when she was a young girl we could only speculate that she must have been born around 1862. She married my great grandfather before the Zulu War of 1879. We know that she was over 100 years old when she died in 1972, but no one could tell her exact age…. All we knew was that she was as old as history.”
Indeed, it is the very history of the Zulu nation that springs to life as Mbongeni Ngema shares his important new play with today’s audiences, performed to the accompaniment of noted maskanda star, Matshitshi Ngema.
Tickets for The Zulu’s Market Theatre season in Johannesburg are R150 (Tuesdays), R180 (Wednesdays), R200 (Thursdays Fridays and Saturdays) and R150 (Sundays), R53 for students, and half price for pensioners and actors from Wednesday – Sunday. Block bookings of 10 – 50 quality for 20% discount, 51 and more get 25% discount. Booking is through Computicket on 0861 915 8000 or online at www.computicket.com
Following its performances in Johannesburg The Zulu will run in Durban’s Playhouse Drama Theatre from 3 – 29 December 2013, prior to playing the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from 27 January to 22 February 2014. Thereafter, the production is set to tour internationally, with seasons in Zimbabwe and New York already on the cards for next year.
