Antigone
(not quite/quiet)
“Ninganiki Okungcwele Ezinjeni”
about
Antigone, an old story from the dawn of democracy. Rule, order, power, women, mortality.
A new context. A time to scream. An exciting group of collaborators:
Mark Fleishman, Jennie Reznek, Neo Muyanga, Craig Leo, Mandisa Vundla.
But we are tyrants too. We look, but we see nothing. Someone speaks to us, but we hear nothing.
And we go on in our endlessly narcissistic self-justification, adding Facebook updates and posting on Instagram. Tragedy is about many things, but it is centrally concerned with the conditions for actually seeing and actually hearing. In making us blind, we might finally achieve insight, unblock our ears and stop the droning surf of the endless song of ourselves: me, me, me, this is all for me (really?). […] The tyrant experiences no shame. But we also have no shame. We are also little, shameless tyrants […].
(Simon Critchley, Tragedy, The Greeks, and Us, p. 15)
Sophocles’ Antigone is a play about a society at the dawn of democracy, coming to terms with the aftermath of a civil war, a society struggling to - unable, perhaps, to - deal with its dead. It is also a play about the irreconcilable division of systems of law, of gender and of generations. But this is not a production of Sophocles’ Antigone. It is a set of responses to the play from the perspective of three of the play’s characters: Ismene, Antigone, Tiresias. And from a perspective in time that we might call our postcolonial present which is tragic in the way that it cannot escape the shameful past that is supposed to have passed but continues to haunt our every current moment. In this respect it is about re-membering, a desperate attempt to put together a fractured body. But the dramaturgical impulse arose from a realization of how separated we are so many years after the supposed end of apartheid. How despite the fact that we continue to live together in close proximity, we do not/cannot/wish not to see or understand each other, across intersecting divisions of race, gender, class and sexuality. Like the three parts of this triptych, we reach but cannot touch; we touch but cannot bind into any sense of a whole; we remain inevitably inconvenient to each other, immovable from our common landscape. Despite lofty ambitions of reconciliation and social cohesion, or our deepest, darkest desires to be rid of each other, we are stuck together.
And we are blind. Tiresias was blinded by the sight of the naked body of Athena; we have been blinded by the promise of freedom – so valuable and yet we have blindly handed it over, entrusted it to those in power, those without apparent care, or concern, or comprehension. And in our blindness we are uncomfortable and angry and ashamed, with no alternative but to carry on, together.
At the beginning of 2019, the UCT Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies, generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, embarked on an exciting 5-year research project on Re-imagining Tragedy from Africa and the Global South. Part of the project involves the making of four new ‘tragedies’ together with our partners at Magnet Theatre and The Baxter. This production is the first. The tragedy of the aftermath and the aftermath of tragedy.
creative team
Director: Mark Fleishman
Set and Costume Design: Craig Leo
Lighting Design: Mark Fleishman
Production Manager: Themba Stewart
Stage Manager: Sinako Doni
PART I: ISMENE
Written and performed by: Jennie Reznek
Choreographer: Ina Wichterich
PART II: ANTIGONE
Musical Director and Composer: Neo Muyanga
Choreographer: Jennie Reznek with input from Luxolo Mboso and the cast
Text by: Sophocles, Mandisa Vundla and the cast
Created and performed by: Carlo Daniels, Motlatji Mjamba, Sive Gubangxa, Siyavuya Gqumehlo, Jason Jacobs, Balindile ka Ngcobo, Sizwe Lubengu, Sivenathi Macibela, Sityhilelo Makupula, Luxolo Mboso, Abigail Mei, Yvonne Msebenzi, Kanya Viljoen
PART III: TIRESIAS
Performed by: Faniswa Yisa
Videographer: Kirsti Cumming
Text by: SEK Mqhayi and others
MARK FLEISHMAN
Writer, director and academic, Mark Fleishman is currently the director of the Centre for Theatre Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town and Co-Artistic Director of Magnet Theatre. Mark is an award-winning director and has directed most of the nearly 40 Magnet Theatre productions since The Show’s not Over ‘Til the Fat Lady sings in 1991. Most recently he directed Jennie Reznek in her solo show I Turned Away and She was Gone and the 6th cohort of Magnet trainees in Friederich Durenmatt’s The Visit. He also functions as a writer, not only of theatre texts but has published many academic articles, mainly on South African theatre and is an internationally respected theatre academic.
CRAIG LEO
Craig Leo is a South African theatre designer, puppeteer and performing artist. Leaving university to begin working In theatre, he trained in circus arts, performing with The Zip Zap Circus leading to a role in the Sun City Circus Extravaganza, Baletsatsi. Collaborating with colleagues, he formed the acrobatic theatre company ‘Myth’, touring both Austria and Germany. As performer and designer, he's has worked with top South African theatre makers as both designer and performer. Magnet Theatre, Jazzart Dance Theatre, Mothertongue, Janni Younge Productions and The Handspring Puppet Company. Productions include Medea, Bolero, Rain in a Dead Man’s Footprints, Cargo, Partly God, The Flower of Shembe, I Turned away and She was Gone, City of Paradise, The Firebird and Womb of Fire.
His collaboration with The Handspring Puppet Company includes Tall Horse, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse for William Kentridge, Franco Dragone’s House of the Dancing Water, War Horse, Or I'll Kiss You and Olifantland. Craig's has continued his relationship with The National Theatre as Associate Director of Puppetry with War Horse. Most recently Craig designed and directed the puppetry for Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, directed by Sally Cookson for WYP, Leeds. As performer his recent work Includes Vivaldi's Four Season Re-Imagined for The Shakespeare's Globe, London.
THEMBA STEWART
Themba Stewart graduated from University of Cape Town as a theatre maker in 2008. He has since worked as a freelance production manager, director, designer and performer. Themba has managed multiple shows in theatre/site specific festivals, venues and site specific spaces in the country and internationally. He started working with Magnet theatre in 2011 and has been a production, tour, stage and venue manager for shows in Cape Town and abroad.
JENNIE REZNEK
Jennie Reznek (Artistic Director and Trustee) (BA Perf. Dip in Speech and Drama, UCT; Ecole Jaques Lecoq, Paris; MA ,UCT) is a graduate of University of Cape Town Drama school and studied in Paris with Jacques Lecoq for two years (1984 -1986). She is a director of Magnet Theatre and has lectured in movement at University of Cape Town. She has worked as an aerialist and clown in the circus; a movement director and choreographer; a puppeteer with Handspring Puppet Company and is responsible for the bulk of the creative and teaching programs of Magnet Theatre. She is an award winning performer, has had 27 international tours with Magnet Theatre’s Every Year Every Day I am Walking, been nominated for 7 awards for her recent solo I turned away and she was gone which was also published by
Modjaji books in 2018.
INA WICHTERICH
Multi-talented director, choreographer and dancer Ina Wichterich was born in Bonn, Germany, and has lived and worked in South Africa since 1999. As choreographer and teacher Ina has worked with Jazzart Dance Theatre, Replay Dance Theatre, Unmute and is currently the Artistic Manager at Youngblood Arts and Culture Development in Cape Town. Antigone (not quite/quiet) is the 5th production that she has collaborated on with Magnet Theatre, including Cargo, Every Year Every Day I am Walking and I turned away and she was gone.
NEO MUYANGA
Neo Muyanga is a composer, sound artist and librettist. His work traverses new opera, jazz improv and Zulu and Sesotho idiomatic song. He sang in township choirs before assimilating into the madrigal tradition while living in Italy in the 1990’s. In 1996 he co-founded (with Masauko Chipembere) the duo, Blk Sonshine, and in 2008, co-founded (with Ntone Edjabe) the Pan African Space Station - a platform for cutting-edge Pan African music and sound art on the internet. His recordeds include: Blk Sonshine (1999), the Listening Room (2003), Fire, Famine Plague and Earthquake (2007), Good Life (2009), Dipalo (2011), Toro tse Sekete (2015) and Second-hand Reading (2016). His stage productions include A Memory of how it feels (2010), The Flower of Shembe (2012), The Heart of Redness (2015) and MAKEdbA (2018). An alumnus of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (2016), he was also Composer-in-residence of the Johannesburg International Mozart Festival (2017), the National Arts Festival (2017) and the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival (2018). He tours widely as a solo performer, bandleader and choral conductor.
MANDISA VUNDLA
A Soweto Born Writer with a bloodline that traverses KZN. Vundla is the Co-editor of the groundbreaking poetry anthology ‘Home Is Where The Mic Is’. Vundla works as a poetry writing coach, utilizing spoken word as a fundamental tool to engage schools in marginalized communities. She is the founder of the ‘Soweto Poetry Workshops’ built on the historical legacy of ‘literature and the culture of the arts in the Soweto Township’. In 2018, Vundla founded the 'PoetryZoneZA'.
KIRSTI CUMMING
Kirsti Cumming is a multi-skilled multimedia artist, passionate about the digital arts, collage and projection. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, she obtained a diploma in multimedia and web design from the Art Institute of Seattle. In Cape Town, she's worked in the editing department of the film industry, created live visual projections at outdoor music events, projection mapped art installations and designed video for the stage. Her versatility in content creation and implementation has allowed her to move fluidly between opera, musicals, classical ballet, performance art and experimental theatre. Shows include Mandela Trilogy, Der Fliegende Holländer, Magic Flute, Tsotsi the Musical, Cinderella the Ballet, Little Mermaid the Ballet, Aunty Merle the Musical, Samson, South Pacific.
FANISWA YISA
Faniswa Yisa is a multi-award-winning actress and UCT graduate with a Performer's Diploma in Speech and Drama. Performances in recent years include, Reza de Wet’s Missing, Ityala Lamawele, Born in the RSA and What Remains, for which she won the Best Actress award at the 2018 Fleur du Cap awards. She has most recently played Mother Hen in Knuckle City (the South African sbmission for the International Feature Film Category at the Oscars for 2020).
cast
cast
Jennie Reznek
Abigail Mei MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Carlo Daniels MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Luxolo Mboso MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Sityhilelo Makupula MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Sivenathi Macibela MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Siyavuya Gqumehlo MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Sizwe Lubengu MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Yvonne Msebenzi MAGNET Trainee Photograph by Jesse Kramer
Balindile Ngcobo MA Student Photography by:Justin Munitz
Jason Jacobs MA Student
Kanya Viljoen MA Student Photography by:Justin Munitz
Motlatji Mjamba MA Student
Sivenkosi Gubangxa MA Student
Faniswa Yisa Photograph by Sven Kristian
gallery
gallery
texts
Antigone Responses
Mandisa Vundla
Preamble:
Nationalise our oppressions
Let there be an equal distribution of our struggles
Come carry the load with us
Unfree us all.
All shall be made to feel equally small
In the eyes of the law
We shall all bear wombs and bleed as one body
There shall be an equal distribution of violence
We all have the right to shed each others blood
we shall all be free
to die in silence
as one
Under God’s give sun
The land shall be ploughed by those who die in it first
All our bones will rake the soil
And all our hate will bury us first
Before we have the chance to bury each other
----------------
You strike a woman
You multiply the rocks
two tongues, swollen in one mouth
can’t defend themselves
So they defend each other
Bite after bite
The tongue lashes
Demanding solidarity to surrender itself
Solidarity, Solidarity, Surrender my voice
I’ve been struck by silence
I’ve been struck by stone
Solidarity, Solidarity, uncage me when i call
You strike me, you strike one rock
You strike us; two rocks merge in one mouth
Bite after bite the tongue lashes
And we do not die
We multiply
-------------
The law is made in the image of man
Man uses the law to keep patriarchy safe
To free the woman
The woman must free the law of man
The law starts a fire with all the rules it breaks
everybody is a log thrown into the flame
The law burns its flesh
Spits on its children to extinguish the flames
Congratulates itself
then declares the city safe
The law is made in the image of patricentric man
No one is above the law
No one is above man
No one questions the law
No one questions man
No one threatens the law
But the law threatens the people
The law is a threat to itself
Man is a threat to himself
----------------
Our anger is the only weapon we trust
and so we carry It
like a gun
one explosion at a time
We lead ourselves
a thousand bodies on front lines
With gunshot eyes
Shutting cities down
We lend ourselves
As placards
As shields
We lead ourselves
Carrying each other like spears
Sunken to the the ground
Using our bodies to make our mark
We lead ourselves
To death, to be free
We free ourselves
And the wars forget our names
And so we fight again for the wars to remember our struggles
We free ourselves
some victories are lost with our blood
One explosion at a time
When a black woman goes about her day
Sometimes there’s a silent war
wrapped around her head
----------------
Offering to die for change to come
Offering to die for change to come.
We must find ways to unbury ourselves
when we howl in a hunt for our freedom.
As every letter clenches with tension around our teeth
We must unleash our minds
Brave our spirits
crowd the air with our bodies
Take up space!
And if this chase for freedom of self realisation fails
Then the laws shall abide by my curse
There shall be an equal distribution of the women's struggles amongst all
All shall be made to feel equally small
in the eyes of the law
All shall carry our load From Cape to Cairo…
The law shall unfree us all!
we shall all be free
to die in silence
And all the hate we’ve endured will bury you first
Before we bury each other
----------------
We have come to multiply
Have you ever seen a woman bury silence with her death?
raise other women with the skin of her ash?
Ever seen the bones of her courage latch onto the living?
An old defiance breaking the silence of a new dawn?
A new kingdom being born?
An old resistance is growing new flesh and teeth?
The living growing in place of dead things?
And In the space of dead things
We do not die
We come to multiply.
From dust we return to reclaim lost soil
To push the land that has outgrown us
Back into the womb
And to wait for the water to break everything loose
And old resistance, Amandla, is growing new teeth
Slowly unbuckling her fists
Replacing the old wars
With a newborn rebellion
----------------
Cleansing
Solidarity solidarity surrender my voice
Solidarity solidarity surrender my voice
We have gone unheard
So we herd ourselves in numbers
to chant a message to the Gods
To cleanse the kingdoms
The chorus of Thebes must fall
a new chorus must form
women must rise to take their place on the throne
We are slaughtering a goat
to spill the blood of patriarchy’s curse
Dispelling all it’s ghosts that are haunting our bodies
Let the incense burn it out
While the beer brews of bellowing songs
Sweetening our messages to the Gods
In all the corners of the kingdom
This is our ritual
For solidarity to surrender our voice
Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity ...
--------------------
Black girl is a whisper \ A lowered grave \ A death between the ears \ Blood spoken softly so no one can hear\ the shattering silence \ a murmuring grave \ a silent death
Dreaming while black woman
Dreaming while black
Is a revolution delayed
Dreaming while black woman
is a revolution denied
A dream with soiled hands and sinking feet
A body broken like a promise safe couldn't keep
We are chasing our dreams while being chased on the streets
We are reaching for the stars
While someone keeps reaching for our bodies
at school
at home
at work
at play
Dreaming while black is a revolution delayed
Dreaming while black woman Is a disappearing act
----------------
Body as weapon
We are loaded women
With too many triggers to count
Anger is the last bullet left in the chamber
We cock our throats
And strip down to the very last shell sheltering the body
We empty ourselves
And we fire
Till there is nothing left of us
But anger, the only weapon we trust
we carry the madness
one explosion at a time
We are guns blazing in a crowd
As outrageous as the crimes as unholy as the justice
Anger is the only weapon we thrust
We lend ourselves
As placards
As shields, as spears, as sirens and sometimes as seers
Shouting at the madness to stop
a thousand bodies fuming on the front lines
foaming at the mouth
With an anger so wild that the words run out of fear
There is nothing left in our chambers but one last shot
Anger is the only weapon we’ve got
We are loaded women loading women
With fire when they tire,
burning for the madness stop.
Mbambushe – Lwaganda’s favorite dog.
“Give not to dogs, sacred things”
SEK Mqhayi
Translated by Phyllis Ntantala
“Lie there, Mbambushe,
Great favorite at the home of Ntlushe,
All your wants have been fulfilled
You have had the best in life.
By nature you were a dog
Created a dog, and born a dog;
It was by nurture you became a human being
This gave you power and all around you feared you.
Great was your luck,
Luck that amazed other dogs;
That this son of Mlawu elevated you
And turned you into a poisonous spider.
You did no wrong, but you were all wrong
That truth must be told,
That is why the courtiers
Manhandled and killed you,
One mistake you made
A mistake that others make,
I say this from what I see around me,
No hearsay but what I hear.
In these days
Crowds fall by the wayside.
Right on this road
Where not even a monkey dare to climb.
With eloquence a man will speak
Opening wide his gizzard
Spilling out all his bile
Until even the heart collapses
Forgetting he depends on others to live
Alone he cannot make it,
A man’s refuge is another human being
Just as a king is a king through his subjects.
Stand tall as the mountain
Gifting is ingrained in the culture
But always keep something in reserve
Lest your stomach gets bloated.
The days of reckoning are coming
Days of inquiries and cross-examinations,
Of being prodded with a weapon
When you can be over-thrown without reserve.
“If you must steal do so with tact”
Such action is not unexpected
But make sure there is some distance
Between you and your actions
Mbambushe! Mbambushe!!
Great one of the home of Ntlushe
How could you ever forget
So that today, you regret your actions!
You made no mistake, son of Mlawu
In giving us this example
The road up the hill is full of dangers
Along it many a king has fallen
Stories have been told
Books have been written and read
That truth now is being told
A king falls betrayed by those close to him,
New fresh untried favourites
Double-faced and Double-tongued
Who speak until their mouths go dry
But by evening they sing another song.
They are up at sunrise
Keeping themselves busy to hide their actions
Dogs who defecate near the houses
Snakes ready to twine themselves around you.
Today we are of Britain
That great house of the king
But Mbambushe among us still lives
He still rules the herd.
Sometime he will come to mislead the people
And in confusion they’ll never speak with one voice.
Other times he’ll attack the seat of power itself
Discrediting everything done for the nation.
The monarch cried until the people heard
Running they came to his rescue,
I witnessed their concern
I the old and toothless one.
Another time he’ll come strutting
With great pomp, with his chest out
That day the kingdom
Will indeed be in danger.
Where are you, you who die with their king?
Where are you, you who die for their country?
How can you retreat, we ask?
Beating a retreat, why?
podcasts
Emma Bilderback is an American expat Master's student based out of the Universiteit van Amsterdam's International Dramaturgy program. She specializes in Theatre of Antiquity, with emphasis on modern contextualization of the ancient works. Emma came to Cape Town for this production of Antigone, and is thrilled to be a part of it in any capacity. She also has an affinity for the English Renaissance, Commedia dell'Arte, and contemporary musical theatre. She received her Bachelor's in Theatre Arts at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City, NY.
We are introduced to our podcast host Emma Bilderback who welcomes us to the podcast series. She asks some of the cast members of Antigone (Not quite/quiet) what their understanding of 'Tragedy' is. She then gives us a synopsis of Sophocles' story of Antigone and reimaginging Tragedy in an African context.
An interview with Prof. Mark Fleishman and his perspectives on reimagining Tragedy in an African context, through his academic research and production of Antigone (not quite/quiet).
An interview with Jennie Reznek about her involvement in Antigone (not quite/quiet), from playing Ismene to writing her solo text.
An interview with musical director and composer, Neo Muyanga, about his process of approaching the vocal soundscapes and creation of languages: through manipulation and corruption of sound and text.
An interview with well reknowned poet, Mandisa Vundla, about her process of writing for urgency and for a modern day Antigone.
EPISODE SIX / Performing Antigone: Part 1
UCT Masters Students
An interview with the current UCT MA Theatre and Performing students, about their experience of performing in Antigone (not quite/quiet) and what it means to decolonise Greek Tragedy.
EPISODE SEVEN/ Performing Antigone: Part 2
Magnet Theatre Trainees
Emma interviews the current Magnet Theatre Trainees abut their experience of performing Antigone (not quite/quiet) and their approach and understanding to embodying and physicalising tragedy.
