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At the end of that performance, I congratulated myself for having made a bold decision to put aside many other cultural events that were competing for my attention in order to watch this theatre production.

If I had missed seeing it, I would have lost a lot in my search for new ideas and exposure to inspirational innovations in my theatre journey as a writer, a director, an actor, a producer and a theatre critic.

I knew Mncedisi Shabangu, the writer and director of this magnificent and innovative theatre production, from reading about prominent movers of the current South African theatre scene and having seen him as Skhumbuzo in “The Lab” — a drama series on SABC3.

I have also read about his enviable achievements in the South African theatre scene such as his winning the KKNK gong for Best Actor for his role in “Tshepang”; and the 2000 FNB Vita Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in “Call Us Crazy”.

I had never seen any of the plays he has written as well as those he has directed such as “Wangesheya-Wangesheya”, “Moori Street Moves”, “Barbershop”, “Vuka Michael”, and “Kanyamazana Galvanomit Akusiti”.

Of course I was aware that this young theatre guru had his foundation in community theatre and that like many modern prominent playwrights and directors in South Africa, he was a graduate of the famous Johannesburg based Market Theatre Laboratory.

So when I met Shabangu with Daves Guzha the producer of this production at Management Training Bureau in Msasa and was told that the man that I had read a lot about was going to direct his play, “Ten Bush” with Harare based Zimbabwean actors, I was not only curious but delighted.
I was excited at the prospects of watching the results of the directorship skills of this prominent young South African thespian.

I call him young because he made an entry into the South African theatre scene in the 1990s while my earliest contacts in the South African theatre scene were Zakes Mda, Robert Kavanagh (Robert McLaren), Lewis Nkosi, Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema, Maishe Maponya, John Kani, Benny Simon, Winston Ntshona, Gibson Kente, and Matsemela Manaka.

Several of my fellow theatre critics in Zimbabwe have reviewed in newspapers and on their blogs this Harare production of  “Ten Bush” and its rendition by a vibrant and young cast comprising.

These are Nothando Nobengula as Khabonini; Caroline Mashingaidze as Duduzile and Gladys; Anthony Mazhetese as Simon and father; Vusi Dzimwasha as Mukunyula and Eddington Hatitongwe as Malaza and Albert. “Ten Bush” is about a complex but present day story residents of a communal village that was established on top of the “graves of 10 Swazi chiefs” who died in a war between the Swazi and Sotho people a century ago.

The residents of this area believe that their ancestors buried on this land have revenged their deaths by cursing entire community of the land on which the village is built.

The curse is manifested through a perpetual hunger and poverty and through the revengeful and violent character of its inhabitants whose lives are controlled by taboos an intricate web of strictly enforced customs and very binding beliefs.

It is the intricate application of these customs, beliefs and taboos those makes this historical story mystic.

The way Shabangu staged this play lends well to the mystic enhancement of the story.
Clever use of space, a large diversity of props, the audience, the characters as props and the set itself, is not only intriguing but activates the reality which actors in their multiple roles animate a very real community magnificently.

The audience finds itself inside the complex village community being portrayed.
Characters in the play become active participating audiences to scenes being acted by fellow characters. Sounds are also created by the intricate use of props.

The set and costumes take the audience into a physical and yet mental context being created and becoming active participants in the mystic adventure curved out of strange beliefs, taboos and customs that are enhanced by active and captivating simulations of real objects, actual actions and engrossing sounds of objects and people.

Major beneficiaries of Shabangu’s brief tour of Harare are the young actors who were not only harvested a huge dosage of theatrical experience from a director who was not just a writer of the play but also actor who wants the acting experience to be a very demanding adventure.

That leaves the actor critically aware of new and unlimited acting possibilities.
The young actors were thrown into the deep end of physical theatre, which is demanded, but in a production that vividly portrayed the benefits of this technique of theatre practice.

They were made to appreciate how a director can effectively guide actors in presenting a story they themselves are finding difficult to relate to and to make immediate sense of at reading the script and even its enactment.

Some of these young actors had handled plays whose stories or plots are very familiar and in which they have taken the liberty of adding words, phrase and expressions to a script in order to be comfortable with it.

Our young actors were privileged to be exposed to a sample of theatre creativity where the director and actors are so innovative as to license themselves as advocates or merchants of the notion that theatre is a genre of performing arts were rules and standard norms are meant to be broken.

They also realised that theatre heritage is not a granary of limiting forms, rules, techniques and norms but an asset to be creatively exploited to make this performing art form effectively expressive, very participatory, audience — engaging and an ever vibrant communication of a diversity of human experiences.

Who ever is going to direct these young actors (Nothando Nibengula, Getrude Munhamo, Caroline Mashingaidze, Vusi Dzimasha, Anthony Mazhatese, and Eddington Hatitongwe) after what they went through under Shabangu’s directorship is going to be challenged.

I suspect that this group of actors is not going to be comfortable with directing that is enslaved by lifeless norms and theatrical rules steeped in most predicable realism.

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