It’s quite cold in Cape Town. More so, it’s exam time, and lazing about in the comfy warmth of my bed seems like a better way to achieve procrastination than getting up and going to the theatre. Equally, I have a responsibility to my class mates to support the work that they stage. This responsibility is what drove me to see Mahareng: The Passage of the Bird, at UCT’s Hiddingh Campus this evening.

Mense, I am shook. Before I explain, here’s a bit of information about the production.

Mahareng: The Passage of a Bird is based on a myth by Pule Welch and Samantha Nell. The production considers migration and its associated challenges through tracing the passage of a bird that was born to a human King and Queen. The bird is forced to take on human qualities. When the nation realises that the boy-child is in fact a bird, they cast the King, Queen and their bird-child out. Their only hope is for their child to remember how to fly. They take him into the Land of the Dead to drink from the River of Remembrance. He remembers how to fly and carves a path of stars through the sky for his parents to follow. After the King, Queen and Bird have been cast out, power struggles over who should lead the nation erupts, resulting in civil war. The land burns and everyone is forced to flee. Their only hope is to follow the path of stars carved by the bird in the sky. The production traces many trials and tribulations they must face on this journey to freedom.

This production was directed by Sara Matchett, with choreographic and music direction from Jackie Manyaapelo and Alfred Kunustor respectively.

This piece was staged in an unconventional way in that it was performed at multiple sites on the campus. Not exactly your sit-down performance, but who cares about conventions anyway? I must say that amid the initial discomfort from moving from site to site, the journey that the performers curated for the audience became clear.

I was mesmerised by the wonderful singing of traditional music by the actresses. As somebody who knows music, I quite enjoyed the soulful harmonies and found myself humming along to what was being sung. I must also commend the multilingual text that the piece encompassed. Performers were chanting phrases and lines in languages that weren’t their home languages. Through powerful choreography, their bodies told stories in ways that words alone aren’t equipped to do.

The journey of migration referred to above is not only told through the story, but also through the audiences being commanded to go from site to site. This leads me to think that the audience was as much performer-bodies (maybe spect-actors) as the actual performers were.

The piece was also aesthetically pleasing, using blue, orange and green hues of lighting that not only adorned the performers white and cream coloured costumes, but also managed to tell a story of its own.

On a deeper note, over the last few days, I’ve been trying to plot my journey within the performing arts industry. I started to ask myself questions about where exactly I fit in to the industry, and what exactly I would do after my degree? The fear of not fitting in to any niche within this field led to feelings of elation and I started losing the love for theatre that I’ve harboured since I was a little boy. I am thankful to the cast and crew of Mahareng as this production rekindled the love for theatre that I have lost.

The production was workshopped and performed by the 3^rd year Acting class from the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (formerly known as UCT’s Drama Department). They are: Sam Alexander, Anathi Godlo, Brett Ilsley, Cullum Mc Cormack, Tebatso Molapo, Tshiamo Moretlwe, Basetsana Motloung, Bokang-Lerato Ntsutle, Emma-Jane Pieters, Klara Schoonraad, Megan Tromp, Liam Walsh, Tamzin Williams, Asanda Ncagayi and Damon Munn.

Mahareng: The Passage of a Bird shows at the Little Theatre, UCT Hiddingh Campus until 25 June 2019. Shows are unfortunately sold out, and understandably so.

My rating: 9.65 out of 10.