Dancing the Death Drill is a story of great magnitude.
The historical fiction by Fred Khumalo brings into focus the sinking of the World War 1 warship, the SS Mendi, which carried black South Africans to the Western Front during the war.
More than 600 soldiers died when the ship collided with a mail ship, the SS Darro, and sank on the Isle of Wight in February 1917.
The stage adaptation by James Ngcobo and Palesa Mazamisa for the Joburg Theatre carries the immensity of this hidden, shared history inside and outside the theatre — recalling the names of the forgotten soldiers and giving wider context and details of memorials around Southern Africa.
Given the curious questions from audience members during interval, there’s a need for the knowledge it provides.
In a recent interview on his new historical fiction book Lefatshe ke la Badimo (translating to “the land belongs to the ancestors”) novelist and academic Sabata-Mpho Mokae echoed E’skia Mphahlele’s sentiments that historical fiction charts the history of emotion.
Mokae’s book is premised on Sol Plaatje’s Native Life in South Africa which responds to the Natives Land Act of 1913.
The act gave 87% of the land to whites leaving black people destitute in their own home. This is a subtext to Mendi story as the black South Africans who joined the war did so in the blind hope that their support to the British Crown might motivate the Crown to rescind the Natives Land Act of 1913.
Plaatje’s Native Life in South Africa and the Natives Land Act of 1913 have inspired a deepened contemporary literary and cultural discourse where art and literature seek out justice and healing through activism. Dancing the Death Drill’s subtexts add to this ongoing conversation.
The book is also an example of how memory is active. The act of remembering affects the present; and memory emboldens the book and the play as an extended character.
Khumalo humanises the historical event of the Mendi and charts the history of emotion with a fictional narrative centring the magnetic character of Pitso Motaung.
Pitso is a mixed-race son of the soil with traumatic baggage; he enlists in the war effort to escape his demons and ends up living in France under a new identity. A double murder by his hand opens up the layered and poignant story.
In adapting this for stage Ngcobo armed himself with a formidable creative team. The music — which also shades the book — in the genius hands of 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist for music Msaki, is evocative and deeply moving, blending the soul of classical and African sounds.
The inclusion of the a cappella group iComplete is hair-raising. The decision to include Msaki’s composition Nal’ithemba (Harbouring Hope) is emotively apt as the album it comes from, Zanelisa — How the Water Moves, works poignantly with metaphors and imageries of the sea, the anchoring setting of the Mendi story.
Luyanda Sidiya, the 2015 Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance, with his Luthando Arts Academy troupe, presents dance as a haunting, adding emotional texture and weight to the storytelling.
Clint Brink embodies Pitso’s magnetism in his stage presence. His restrained performance gives volume to his silences and simmering emotion.
He is held by a trustworthy and supportive cast in Charlie Bouguenon, Thuli Thabethe, Sharon Spiegel-Wagner, José Domingos, Ontiretse Manyetsa, Thokozani “Zano” Nzima and Kwenzo Ngcobo. The employment of the wind characters for narration and commentary adds a lightness, so you will be entertained.
Though the adaptation doesn’t satisfy the full circle structure of storytelling, with some visual inconsistencies here and there, the production’s soul is intact. And it brims with brilliance.
This feels like the beginning for this important story of our history. It’s one to be seen countrywide and beyond.
Dancing the Death Drill is on at the Joburg Theatre until September 28.
