Cape Town - The first in an exciting season of tragic reimaginings, Oedipus at Colonus: #aftersophocles, directed by Mark Fleishmanm, premieres at the Baxter Flipside next month.
Presented by The Baxter in collaboration with Magnet Theatre, the production forms part of the Reimagining Tragedy in Africa and the Global South research project (ReTAGS). It is funded by the Andrew W. Melon Foundation, in the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies at UCT.
It follows from the huge success of Antigone (not quite/quiet), which played to great acclaim at The Baxter, in 2019.
Oedipus at Colonus: #aftersophocles is the product of the same creative team that produced the ground-breaking, innovative works Every year, Every day, I am walking, Rain in dead man’s footprints, Cargo and Antigone (not quite/quiet). Here, Andrew Buckland joins Jennie Reznek (Creon) and Faniswa Yisa (Theseus) as Oedipus wanting to be buried in the land.
Occupying that same space is a chorus of homeless occupiers who unwillingly become entangled in Oedipus’ story. Played by graduates of the Magnet Theatre Fulltime Training and Job Creation Programme who make up the Magnet Theatre Youth Company, this chorus is a powerhouse of new talent.
As can be expected in all Magnet Theatre productions, there is strong evocative physical imagery, a surprising staging and now a compelling poetic text in English and isiXhosa (with subtitles), written by award-winner, Qondiswa James, one of the most interesting new writers on the South African theatre scene.
She has written an exquisite lyrical text answering the ancient Greek play from the past with the shocking immediacy of the contemporary moment. It is work that will shake up, unsettle and offer an unflinching reflection on the state of the nation.
Oedipus at Colonus: #aftersophocles is a play about time, ageing, and dying. It was written by Sophocles at the end of his life when he was an old man facing his own death.
It is the third play in the so-called Theban cycle, the first being Oedipus Rex, the second being Antigone and this being the third.
However, in terms of the chronology of the Theban narrative, the action of the play precedes the action of Antigone.
It is also a play about the land and belonging to the land, or more precisely, a desperate desire to belong to the land. In this way, the play, written in the 5th century BC, has immense relevance for a contemporary post-colonial, post-apartheid context in which issues of land hunger, of dispossession, of occupations and removals, continue to plague our society so many years after the advent of democracy.
It is also a play about the limits of redemption and forgiveness. It poses a question as to whether the wrongs of the past can ever really be forgiven. Is there a possibility for penance? Is Oedipus tearing out of his eyes enough?
At one point in the play, the chorus pronounces: “There may be healing of past wrongs but no undoing them”.
Can the polluted figure from the past ever be accepted in the present and what are the consequences of the polluted body being inserted into the land after death? Consequences for the land and for the people who live on that land.
The second production in this season of tragic reimaginings is Mandla Mbothwe’s iKrele le Chiza, an African tragedy based on a fragment from Homer’s Odyssey, which will be staged at the Baxter in March.
The formidable creative team, under the direction of Fleishman are Craig Leo (design), Neo Muyanga (musical direction), Ina Wichterich (choreography), Themba Stewart and Mark Fleishman (lighting design), and Daniel Manners (projections). Sophocles’ text is translated by Oliver Taplin with the permission of Oxford University Press.
Oedipus at Colonus: #aftersophocles, runs at the Baxter Flipside for a limited season from February 3-18, at 7.30pm with Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.
Booking is through Webtickets online at webtickets.co.za/baxtertheatre or at Pick n Pay stores. For block and schools’ bookings or fundraisers, contact Leon van Zyl on leon.vanzyl@ uct.ac.za or Carmen Kearns on carmen. [email protected].
Cape Times