TAKING A CHILD TO BEAR WITNESS IN THEATRE
I am that theatre practitioner who will honour diverse efforts meant to expose children and young people to the theatre. I know the importance and impact that storytelling had on my childhood and I wish that positive experience for every child and beyond. So the 2025 call to take a child to the theatre! has moved me to play a role in realising this.
For a couple of weeks now, I have been working with MEQOQO Playback Theatre Collective to prepare for a performance that would merge with the staging of a production that encapsulates the university life for first year students. Well, the average first year student at a university is eighteen; so technically most first year students are children (according to ACRWC and UNCRC).
The play, RU GAME is directed by award winning director, Makhaola Ndebele who through an avatar takes the audience through the trials and tribulations of university life. The show addresses diverse issues such as relationships, heartbreaks, sexual orientation, academic excellence and exclusions as well as sexual harassment, assault and abuse. Although Ndebele is careful not to be preachy, he uses the frame of the game to ensure that players (characters / students) face the consequences of their unacceptable actions. For example someone is told that their behaviour of sexual harassment will not be tolerated and they are suspended from the game, in many ways mirroring what might happen if students were to be engaged in such conduct.
The beautiful experience for me (and I hope for the children) is the shifting of the spotlight away from the actors to the audience when they are invited to share a story that may have had resonance with the performance. This is done through Playback Theatre; a type of theatre that enacts personal stories on the spot. One of the Conductors Kenya Winn asks about what comes to mind when the word education is mentioned. “Like popcorn!” he says. In my mind I am cognisant that it is a decade (2015 -2025) since the #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall movement and protests ensued, and I am keen to hear the words of resonance.
Nothing of what I expected is said. I quickly remember that the first years might be blind to the events of the time, when amongst other things a call for the decolonisation of the curriculum was made.
Another word “university” is called, and I hear students being nonchalant mentioning Rhodes and Grahamstown. Silently, I recall how the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended change of names as a symbolic reparation. And in the case of Grahamstown, I recall that in 2018, the name was changed to Makhanda to honour prophet Makhanda or Nxele for his fight against colonialism.
The play has the line “we listen, we don’t judge” and those who appreciate the reference are in stitches. But then bearing witness is enough to know what we know collectively and individually, and that is what Playback Theatre affords us.
By the end of the run, I know more than 1500 children will have watched RU GAME. Maybe during that period, someone will shout thoughts that resonate with mine regarding education or university. I am that theatre practitioner who remains curious and I know we learn in different ways and though different contexts. Today we are in theatre and we have come to bear witness. And it is sheer joy!
- Lalu Mokuku is the Chairperson of ASSITEJ South Africa and the Artistic Director of MEQOQO Playback Theatre Collective (meqoqocollective_). She is a member of South African Playback Theatre Association (SAPTA).
If you would like to contribute to the Take a Child to the Theatre / Take a Teen to the Theatre campaign, use the QR code below, and support more children to have access to transformative experiences.
