Theatre maker, director, choreographer and performer Mduduzi Nhlapo continues to examine spiritual socio-political content and pursuing an avant-garde theatre aesthetic in his latest work Magnificent 7 – The Invasion.
Nhlapo, from Soshanguve in Pretoria, started presenting his attest work at the second Kucheza Dance Festival which replaced Dance Umbrella which kicked off last week.
The festival is collaboration between South African State Theatre (SAST) in Pretoria, Playhouse Theatre in Durban and Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. Nhlapo is presenting his work on tomorrow and Sunday at the Arena Stage in SAST.
The Magnificent 7, which inspired by the cast of the film Magnificent Seven that features Denzel Washington and the lucky number 7, Magnificent 7 depicts a turbulent journey of a group of individuals who are at a helm of an apocalypse.
Nhlapo, who has worked in musicals like Freedom with Aubrey Sekhabi, says with Magnificent 7, he wanted to change how black stories are told in the creative world.
He says many black stories have been told through western movements like ballet. In the show, the 30-year-old uses pantsula culture as a voice that represent black people and their history.
“In the township two-dice gambling game, the combination of 7 from the first throw is the winner. When amapantsula (pantsulas) greet each other they always mention 7. This is the culture that started in 1950 as a resistance to apartheid system. It is one of the strongest sub-cultures that have power in its presence.
“When you talk of amapantsula, you know what you are talking about. But we have reduced the culture to the criminal doing. In the show, we use isipantsula as a form of communication but we are not amapantsula.”
In Magnificent 7, Nhlapo documents a story of a journalist, which becomes sort of a memoir in the process of creating the story.
In the dance production, the journalist is telling a certain story with a limited time to do so. He explains that the six dancers or bodies on stage become part of the story he is trying to document.
“And his writing becomes a dream state because of the hieroglyphics moves. They are showing an internal struggle of the writer. He is documenting the story of our people the way he sees it. The twist is that he is brought to a chamber and forced to document our history [black people] the way western wants it. He is caught in between telling like it is or allowed being censored.
"Now there are threats in how he writes, he reflects on atrocities that black people have suffered since colonialism and what colonialism did to our people and how people still suffer from ramifications of that colonialism till today. The colonialism is pushing us to the corner where the possibility of devouring each other is high. We are showing that madness in the story and the thoughts are coming fast for the writer.”
Nhlapo has an honours degree in drama and film and is currently pursuing his masters.
He’s written and directed a stage satirical play Lesilo Rula in 2018, honoring the legends like Boikie Moditle Pholo and was featured in season 5 of The Centre for the Less Good Ideas. In 2019, he choreographed the award-winning Angola Camp 13 by Sello Maseko.
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