69 and Still Counting

Rubbish bins morph into images of intrapersonal and interpersonal war, organized chaos, fracture, graves sites and sculptures. Text surfaces personal yet common stories of loss and dispossession, of marginalisation and invisibility.  Live guitar music creates a soundscape that underscores the emotive tones of these stories – stories that live both in memory and in the present.

Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance 2017 and winner of the 2016 Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voices award, Thandazile Sonia Radebe’s latest work features students from the drama department and collaborators Nompumelelo Vuyiswa Tshabalala (fine art), Zama Phakathi of Stop Sign Art Gallery (fine art) and Biko Manna (live music).

Radebe’s work drew inspiration from two of the turning points in South African history, namely the Sharpeville massacre on March 21 1960, when (at least) 69 people lost their lives, as well as the women’s march of August 1956 when 20,000 women marched on the Union Buildings protesting against proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act and extending apartheid pass laws to black women.

Radebe works from the premise that many more people died in the Sharpeville massacre - in hospital beds, on the way to hospital, in people's yards, and in other people's toilets as they were hiding from the police. She comments on the dispensability of those black bodies and the system that rendered black bodies invisible. In finding another ideational stimulus in the 1956 march, she references women’s resistance in to this legislated invisibility and celebrates the resilience, unity and power of these fierce women.

Today the protests continue. Issues including racism, land redistribution, economic freedom, access to education, and access to health care stand testimony to the gruesome legacy of apartheid. Radebe, her collaborators and her cast offer this work as a response – if not a protest - to this legacy. This production ties in to the University of Pretoria's Human Rights Day celebrations. 

Dates: 22 - 24 March 2018, 19:00, Masker Theatre 

Tickets & bookings: R40 for students, R50 for adults; book with [email protected]