Taking on taboos

A devastating real-life tragedy gets
retold in the South African play Tshepang

RETELLING A TOUGH TALE:
Constance Didi and Mncedisi Shabangu

By NEIL BOYCE

Telling an awful story is like taking strong medicine—you hate the bitter taste it leaves, but you need it. The 2001 news coverage of infant rapes in South Africa form the backdrop to the touring production Tshepang, now playing at Théâtre La Chapelle.

One unforgettable case in particular is at its core: six men from the poor township of Louisvale are arrested for the gang rape of a nine-month-old girl, later dubbed by the local media “Baby Tshepang” (the word for “hope” in the Setswana language).

The revulsion and outcry among South Africans was widespread. Protests, vigils and an intense self-examination of their society followed as people wondered how their country had come to such a point.

Playwright/director Lara Foot Newton’s adapted story begins with Ruth, the mother of baby Tshepang, having not uttered a word in three years. Simon, Ruth’s companion, comes forward to protect her, sparking a tale of hope and love.

In approaching the taboo topic, Foot Newton felt it important to bring the dishonoured town to life. “It felt like the village was the rapist,” she says, “but at the same time, the whole community had been violated—by colonialism, by apartheid, by poverty. It had lost its humanity.”

Since its performance in 2003, the play has toured South Africa and six countries to rapturous reviews. Constance Didi and Mncedisi Shabangu reprise their roles from the original production that reaches Montreal at last thanks to Maurice Podbrey. Founding artistic director of the Centaur, it was Podbrey who first brought South African theatre to Montreal in 1975 when he introduced the works of Athol Fugard.

“This is probably South Africa’s most significant theatre piece of the past decade,” says Podbrey. “Lara Foot Newton is, I believe, the successor to Athol Fugard as the playwright of note in a reborn South Africa. The play is a courageous story of love, forgiveness and coming to terms with a devastation of huge magnitude.”

Religious inquest

The downtown St. James United Church, smack in the middle of a once gritty section of Ste-Catherine, gives Bruce M. Smith’s new play Blessed Are They a wonderful setting for his battle between evangelical crazies and the honest, flawed churchgoers of a small rural parish.

Andreas Apergis is Hewitt, minister of a tiny congregation and a man struggling over his faith and certainty in The Word.

New church members Paul (Eric Davis) and his glassy-eyed friend Jane (Emily Bamforth) walk into this simple gathering like an invasive species, plotting to take over the church.

From the opening monologue, set in an AA meeting in the church basement, the gauntlet to the zealots is thrown. Boris (played by Russian-Montrealer Igor Ovadis), says, “I don’t need God so much, but I need the program.”

Vlasta Vrana—gruff, boozy, swearing in church—is utterly natural as Tully. Reacting to Paul’s sweetly asked, prying question, “Who gave you your first drink?” he answers, “None of your fucking business.” He’s matched by his combative partner Violet (Joanna Noyes), the first to see through Paul’s plans.

Smith’s text seesaws between comedy and drama—and some violent outbursts from the tightly-wrapped Paul—but the senior actors in supporting roles are what make the difference under Guy Sprung’s direction.

Ovadis captures the soul of this big-hearted play, so well you wish it was built more around his character. “Faith. What is it?” he says. “If you could see God, you wouldn’t need faith.”

BLESSED ARE THEY TO MARCH 5,
ST. JAMES UNITED CHURCH (463 STECATHERINE
W.), (514) 987-1774, EXT. 104
TSHEPANG FEB. 24–MARCH 7, THÉÂTRE
LA CHAPELLE (3700 ST-DOMINIQUE),
LACHAPELLE.ORG.