A Cut Above The Rest
23 Years, a Month and 7 Days
Nominee for Fleur du Cap Best New Director, young and upcoming playwright, Nwabisa Plaatjie, 24,
brings a play set against the backdrop of the 2015 #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall movements,
to the 2018 National Arts Festival Fringe, under The Edge team.
23 Years, a Month and 7 Days uses the language of physical theatre and storytelling to engage with a contentious issue and one still unfolding in the South African narrative, decolonisation and free
education for all.
Performed in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, 23 Years, a month and 7 days shares its origins with
The Fall, the frank, collaborative theatre piece created by seven UCT graduates. The Fall premiered
to great acclaim at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town last year and has since been gathering
international accolades. But where The Fall represents the experience of the collective, 23 Years tells of the individual. It introduces themes of migration and self-actualisation to the one of mass student movement and youth-led revolution.
“The play expresses all sorts of views and is not there to tell you what to think about student
protests. It is structured in a way that tries to engage with the deliberate erasure of individuals
(particularly women) who are not as vocal in student protests. Nontyatyambo is a first-year student
who is new to activism and protest. And these things are hitting against her. They are happening
around her, forcing her to engage with them. So she needs to be recognised, because she is there.” - Nwabisa
Immersed in a volatile and systemically violent social and political environment Nontyatyambo finds
her identity in conflict with what is happening around her, and her voice quiet rather than vocal in
protest. Her journey of self-actualisation entails the redefinition of her role in this society.
The play was written in 2016 through the Magnet Theatre theatre-making internship programme
and premièred to great acclaim there, it then had international exposure at the Young Arts Fest in
Erlangen, Germany last year and most recently, it had a run at the Baxter Theatre as part of the
Baxter Theatre Centre’s brand new Platform for Special Talent which was included in the Zabalaza Festival.
Created with the support of Magnet Theatre and funding by the National Arts Council.
Megan Furniss, Weekend Special
"Nwabisa has entered the space of creative theatricality with boldness... Her voice as a director is strong, but the power of her writing is even stronger."
A little more...
From Ugie in the Eastern Cape, Nwabisa Plaatjie is a young and upcoming theatre-maker. Her first professional year was spent at Magnet Theatre through their year-long Theatre-Making Internship Programme where she created Aha! and 23 Years, a Month and 7 Days both of which have toured internationally. In 2017 she was awarded the Theatre Arts Admin Collective’s 2017 Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary for Reimaging The Native Who Caused All The Trouble and was the first recipient of the Baxter Theatre Centre Playlab. She is currently pursuing her Masters degree at the University of Cape Town and is also curating and coordinating the Baxter’s Masambe Theatre, driving its relaunch as a space for performance, collaboration and networking.
Nwabisa was nominated for Best New Director for the 2018 Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards.