FRUIT. Written and directed by Paul Noko, with Matshediso Mokoteli. At The Baxter’s Masambe Theatre until August 29. TRACEY SAUNDERS reviews
PAUL NOKO has achieved the almost impossible task of finding hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Fruit follows the fraught life of a young girl from early childhood through to her formative years. Her experiences are commonplace in a country ravished by violence, and without any sentimentality she exposes her life and the lives of others to the audience.
The 14-year-old Matlakala lives in a community in Soweto. Her world and life are bound by the Nascrec Road and the road leading to Potchefstroom. A slip of a girl dressed in a floral sun dress, she sits on the stage playing with her companion – a large white plastic doll similarly dressed in a floral dress. Seemingly oblivious to the audience as they take their seats she talks with and scolds her doll. Once the house lights are dimmed she begins to create a world which will steal your heart. She doesn’t do it alone though.
Noko had entered the play into the SA National Community Theatre Association, Gauteng Province Theatre Festival at the Hillbrow Theatre in Johannesburg when it was confirmed that all entries had to have five cast members. Fruit has one actor – Mokoteli. Undeterred he added additional cast members in the form of stones.
The play went on to win awards for Best New Script, Best Actress, and the 1st runner up to Best production. The stones become members of the community, and so vivid are Mokoteli’s descriptions of each character that you wince as their lives come to an often inglorious end, and they are dropped in a bucket.
Noko has crafted a script which is able to show Matlakala’s innocence and the betrayal of that innocence without grandstanding.
He has drawn on experiences in his own life which does much to explain the authenticity of the narrative. He has created a character which reflects the dreams, despair and ultimately hope of so many South African girls.
After several failed attempts to return the fruit of the title back to the tree from which it has fallen, she begins her story. Mokoteli is a master storyteller. Her pace and expression are captivating and she scoops the audience in to the palm of her hand and doesn’t relinquish her grasp for a moment. The community is a microcosm of South Africa, there are young unemployed men “sitting waiting for a better life for all”, petty thieves, religious leaders and ordinary citizens who bear the brunt of poverty and crime. Matlakala has reached the conclusion that “being a woman is a curse” and there is very little evidence in her immediate surrounds which disproves this. There is a “family of joy” who come to a tragic end, a “family of thieves”, who steal more than just material goods. Each person in the community – from the hapless and hungry thief Banana ,to the inappropriately named Robin Hood, who steals from rich and poor alike is sketched without fear and favour.
Her acceptance that they all live under a “sun that swallows shadows” seems resigned, but not in an embittered way. Each story is a paving stone on her life’s path – one by one they map the course of her journey until she takes you with her to her final destination. While it is her story, her path, the beauty of Fruit is that you are taken with on each step of the journey, not as a voyeur, but implicated in each and every action.
The intimacy created is reminiscent of that experienced in story- telling circles, where each person holds the space, the story and ultimately the storyteller. The matriarch of the story is the Gogo, who gives her and many others a home and hope. The meaning of her mantra, as she gifts each visitor to her home with fruit – “have a fruit and have hope,” becomes clearer by the end of the play.
Unsurprisingly Fruit won the award for the best production at The Zabalaza Festival at the Baxter earlier this year, an event which occasioned this run. Ordinarily the winning production is subject to some changes and the professional run is slightly different from the original performances. The Zabalaza team, Thami Mbongo and Bongile Mantsai made the very wise decision to leave Fruit virtually untouched.
The tenderness and naivety which made the initial performance such a heartbreaking and beautiful piece of theatre is still there. There are elements of the staging which are so simple, yet they create such fierce and unflinching imagery that they will remain seared in your mind’s eye. The young girls’ desperate attempt to reclaim her innocence is one of the most moving images I have seen on stage for while.
American writer Brenda Ueland said, “everyone is talented, original and has something important to say”. She could have had Noko and Mokoteli in mind. They tell an important story with an honesty and creativity that affirms the place of theatre and stories in healing individuals and the country. There are no bright lights or busy sets, but rest assured, this will be one of the most vivid and compelling productions you will see this year.
l Matinees on Wednesdays, Thursdays at 11am, Saturday at 2pm. Tickets: R85. Book: www.computicket.co.za