A theatrical requiem

James Ngcobo’s staging of Dancing the Death Drill, being performed at the Joburg Theatre, transforms Fred Khumalo’s novel into a spiritual and ancestral reckoning

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chiefs, felt when they saw a train, boat and the ocean for the first time.

The three narrators — initially a point of concern — emerge as vital to the play’s timeline, guiding audiences between the present in France, Pitso’s past in South Africa and the harrowing events aboard the Mendi.

The eclectic mix of facts, comedy and cheer was the golden thread that stitched the overall story together.

Two of the narrators double as pivotal characters in the second act, an effective artistic choice offering emotional continuity.

While in France, Pitso, unlike Marcus Garvey’s followers who boarded the Black Star Line for Liberia in the 1900s, does not find an easy return.

“How can one go back to a place that deserted them?” he asks, echoing the silent question of many in the diaspora — discarded by their homeland, yet unwelcome abroad.

His search for identity in France is as complex as it is painful, mirroring the struggles of all those who live between.