London
I See You (Ngiyakubona Ek Sien Jou Ndiyakubona)
By Mongiwekhaya

Royal Court Theatre to 26 March
Jerwood Theatre Upstairs,
Sloane Square,
London SW1W 8AS

Mon-Sat 7.45pm; Thurs, Sat mats 3.00pm

Runs: 1hr 15 without interval

TICKETS 020 7565 -5000
In person: Mon–Sat, 10am-start of perf or 6pm if no show
On-line: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk

Age guidance: 14+

Mondays all tickets £10; concs £5 off two top prices on daily standby; for 25s and under; School and HE groups of 8+; groups of 6+
Access: £12 + companion
*ID required. All discounts are subject to availability

Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Mar 4, 2016:

Another triumph at the Court
Another triumph for one of the Royal Court’s unsung heroes. Elyse Dodgson has been running the International arm of the Royal Court’s activities for nearly two decades, developing new writing voices. The project now has connections in 70 countries.

Last year, the scheme resulted in the stunning Fireworks by Palestinian writer Dalia Taha. Now recent workshops in South Africa (the Court’s relationship with South African theatre goes back to the 1970s with Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona’s Sizwe Bansi is Dead) have delivered a new name, Mongiwekhaya and his revelatory, brave, I See You, a play that will certainly open a few eyes to post-apartheid South Africa.

Mongiwekhaya is not afraid to state the unpalatable that all is not well in the Rainbow Nation, least of all amongst those who should be upholding its system of law and order. But, as I See You tellingly shows, a chaotic, Kafkaesque brutalism exists, one layered by so many ethnic tensions that individual firestorms of resentment and anger are capable of breaking out on the flimsiest of pretexts. The legacies of struggle run deep and ugly.

A young educated English-speaking (Xhosa) African law student, Ben, picks up a white Afrikaner South African, Skinn. Their night out, however, is interrupted by a former (Zulu) freedom fighter now turned policeman in the throes of a messy divorce.

The distinctions, personal and ethnic, are important because in a nightmare night, Buthelezi, the policeman is determined to teach privileged Ben a lesson about his nation’s history whilst also giving vent to personal misery. Past and present, in other words, collide.

I See You also represents the wonderful actor, Noma Dumezweni’s directorial debut. A refugee from those apartheid days, her production, amazingly spoken in four different South African languages, feels sprung from raw inner truths of present day South Africa.

Mongiwekhaya writes with insight and terrific courage forcing his characters to confront their individual hearts of darkness in order to find a better way forward.

Painfully, a play of public expiation, it’s led by Bayo Gbadamosi as the softly spoken, law student and the shaven head Desmond Dube as the bullet-headed Buthelezi – traumatised and traumatising.

Terrific.

I See You (Ngiyakubona Ek Sien Jou Ndiyakubona)
By Mongiwekhaya

Cast:
Skinn: Jordan Baker
Buthelezi: Desmond Dube
Ben: Bayo Bdadamosi
James: Austin Hardiman
Masinga: Sibusiso Mamba
DJ Mavovo/Dr Pravesh: Amaka Okafor
Shabangu: Lunga Radebe

Director: Noma Dumezweni
Designer: Soutra Gilmour
Lighting Designer: Richard Howell
Composer & Sound Designer: Giles Thomas
Movement Director: Luyanda Sidiya
Casting Director: Amy Ball
Assistant Director: John Haldar
International Director: Elyse Dodgson
Associate Director (International): Richard Twyman
International Assistant: Sarah Murray
Voice & Dialect Coach: Zabarjad Salam
Fight Director: Bret Yount

I See You is presented as part of International Playwrights: A Genesis Foundation Project and first performed at the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Feb 25, 2016. Subsequently at the Market Theatre Johannesburg, April 13, 2016

For more info see: www.royalcourttheatre.co.uk

2016-03-06 21:21:12