June 24 National Arts Festival diary: ‘This place hurts’

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“The script is about the value of insisting on loving a place, a country that very clearly doesn’t love you, and the possibility of extricating yourself and deciding not to love it at all,” says Sibongakonke Mama, playwright and producer of Ibuhlungu le Ndawo. 

Ibuhlungu le Ndawo means ‘this place hurts’. The title is open-ended, says Mama, and itself an invitation. 

“Ibuhlungu le Ndawo could mean that part of your body is in pain, it could mean a social location or a political location hurts, it could mean the place itself is hurting, the ground you walk on is hurting. So it is an invitation, for when you say the title or when you read the title, to consider where it is in yourself that it hurts – kubuhlungu kona. 

There was not a dry eye in the theatre during the performance. Those who did not cry sighed knowingly. 

Indigenous music and occasional gospel hymns are the backdrop for the play. Poetry breaks lend extra intimacy – like a hand on the soul, scooping out the pain so far suppressed that you never thought you would feel it again. 

Ibuhlungu le Ndawo is performed by Chuma Sopotela, Indalo Stofile and Nasfa Ncanywa. The trio was sensational, moving from script to song and poetry, seamlessly. 

They were accompanied by Siya Makuzeni, a professional trombone player, vocalist, lyricist and songwriter who used different instruments to create sublime moments and elevate elements such as fear, love, anger and, in some instances, time. 

Mama had not written a play prior to Ibuhlungu le Ndawo, her background being in poetry. 

She says there were times when she was in deep reflection, with a notebook close, so that she could write what the body was telling her to write. It reflected in the performances, with the actors moving like water, fluid. 

Mama’s writing is influenced by quiet – listening for writing instead of always having something to say. She says she would sit in absolute silence and write, then she would sit in silence again when she needed to decompress from the writing.

There are many moments in the play where the performers are silent, the music is off and the lights are dim. These times felt like a translation of the silence Mama channelled through her writing. Writing and storytelling that is true and honest.  

“It is very painful to have these things sitting inside of you and having to navigate them when you don’t even know what you are doing, but writing honestly is very rewarding.” 

Ibuhlungu le Ndawo left the audience with more questions than answers. Leaving the theatre, they asked: “Why would Mama do this to us?” It was like exiting a therapist’s office, having received a very different diagnosis to the one Google offered.  

“I am hoping that it is an experience that opens up the possibility of asking questions of ourselves, and sitting with those questions and not expecting answers. Just to hold the question, and not run away from it,” said Mama.