A Cut Above The Rest
Tswalo
From the multi award-winning theatre duo comes Tswalo a celebration of the art of solo
performance a tale told through poetry and physical storytelling entwine to interrogate the rules
that govern life on earth, such as power, creation, politics, connection, and intuition – the
performers’ expression of his ‘source’.
The work undoubtedly begs the question (or theory) of being, becoming and unbecoming Tswalo is the winner of the Cape Town Fringe Fresh Performer Award and Cape Town Fringe Fresh Creative Award for Directing. In Tswalo, the performer’s expression of his spiritual “source” gives the audiences the baton to walk through their own paradigm of ontology, the poetry, prose and physical storytelling furnish us with the necessary tools into a deep meditation.
To remember is an art form, to go into the biological memory, and to rely on bone and DNA as
sources of information in the time travel of both past and future is an intuitive skill. To awaken the
primary senses in anatomy is perhaps the answer to the social responsibility and the political queries of this world. Tswalo is a body of poems constructed to fragment a narrative that is carried in both physicality and Voice. It is placed in a timeless space of existence, which explores the primary themes of being, chaos and beauty, blood and birth, love and war in the same frame.
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“This is what theatre should, and can be.”
A little more...
PERFORMER AND WRITER
Billy Langa is a performer, writer, director and educator; a Naledi Theatre Award winner for Best
Production for Young Audiences for Just Antigone. As a performer he was seen in: Little Foot
directed by Malcolm Purkey (Market Theatre); Thirst directed by James Ngcobo (Afrovibes,
Netherlands and UK); Ubuntu-Spirit (UK and SA); Contacting the World 2010, Manchester; Passages
directed by Robert Haxton (NAF); PoetOtype (Market Theatre, South African State Theatre and
Soweto Theatre) directed by Jefferson Tshabalala; Egoli (Market Theatre); Ankobia (NAF, Market
Theatre). In addition he has been seen in Sex and Me by Clara Vaughan and directed by Craig Morris;
and Short Stories Alive directed by Neil Coppen, produced by ShakeXperience. Billy Langa also writes
and performs in his own work. He wrote and performed in the acclaimed solo work, Tswalo, in Cape
Town, Germany and Johannesburg; and Ngwadi, which was performed at the Wits Theatre So Solo
Festival. Billy was also one of the twelve actors who were chosen by the Royal Court Theatre for the
staged readings of the New Plays from South Africa: After 20 Years of Democracy. Directing: Just
Antigone; Sophiatown; Everyman; Finding Melo and The Good Person of Szechuan.
DIRECTOR AND LIGHTING DESIGNER
Mahlatsi Mokgonyana is a director, actor and facilitator: recipient of the TAAC emerging theatre
director’s bursary; Naledi Theatre Award winner for Best Production for Young Audiences, supported
by Assitej SA, for Just Antigone, and BroadwayworldZA Nominee for best revival of a play, for his
direction of Athol Fugard’s My Children My Africa. He directed Just Antigone (National Arts Festival;
POPArt Maboneng; Schools Tour Johannesburg); Tswalo (Plat4orm, POPArt Maboneng, University of
Cape Town Drama Department, Magnet Theatre, Alexander Bar Theatre Upstairs; Theatre Arts
Admin Collective, Soweto Theatre); My Children! My Africa! (Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Soweto
Theatre, South African State Theatre); Lysistrata (POPArt Maboneng); The Good Person of Szechuan
(AFDA Red Roof Theatre); The Hungry Earth (AFDA Cape Town); I See You (AFDA Cape Town); and, in
addition, he collaborated with Christian Bloem from Holland and created SHH!, a play for young
audiences; and went on to direct two new plays for teens, Complexion and Finding Melo. As a
performer he was seen in: Egoli (Market Theatre); Sex and Me (national tour); DET Boys’ High
(Joburg Theatre); and Ketekang: the musical (Market Theatre).
SOUND DESIGNER
John Withers is a composer and performer based in Cape Town, South Africa. His compositions and
arrangements have been broadcast, both locally and internationally, in feature films, commercials,
and video games. He is credited for his composition for the South African film The Four Corners,
which was the country’s candidate for best foreign film at the 89th Film Academy Awards (the
Oscars). He is the principal songwriter in the group John Wizards, whose self-titled album (2013) was
released to critical acclaim, ranking number eight in The Guardian’s (UK) best album of the year.
John Wizards has performed at international music festivals such as Glastonbury, Primavera, and
Midi; and John was included in the Mail and Guardian’s list of 200 Young South Africans in 2014. His
collaboration with playwright Joanna Evans on The Year of the Bicycle helped earn the play a
Standard Bank Silver Ovation award at the 2013 National Arts Festival. John’s specialisation lies in Southern Africa.