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Ujiimimangalisco and Ibali looTsotsi The Mysteries on DVD, and The Beggar's Opera at Wilton's Music Hall Oct/Dec 2002 and 25 March 2003
The African version of The Beggar's Opera was played at the end of 2002 in double bill with a revival of The Mysteries, a masterly recreation of biblical stories from Adam & Eve to Christ's resurrection and an experience never to be forgotten. It was a privilege to join the audience again when it was being filmed for BBC TV and video/DVD. Broomhill Opera's collaborative project with South Africans of multiple ethnic background, who had never been out of their own country, was one of the most inspiring achievements to have reached London in recent years. Ujiimimangalisco (The Mysteries) had been one of the 2001 season's greatest triumphs. The DVD is a permanent tribute to a great vision and one of the most important and fantastic artistic achievements of this new century; a beacon for how the artistic communities could help to point the troubled world in which we live towards a non-racialist future. In the moving documentary included as an 'extra', stage and musical directors Mark-Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood, with members of the company, explain the background to their triumphant collaboration, telling how many South Africans had lost almost everything during the terrible times past - except their voices, which could not be taken from them, and which held their 'souls' and identities. They describe the process of recruitment of a company of singers from the cities and townships, a pool of talent epitomised by the fact that choral singing is a veritable way of life - 10,000 choirs in Cape Town. Singing is the central expression of every aspect of national life, with traditional songs for every daily circumstance, from washing up to circumcision! The Mysteries was the first project to be 'workshopped' in South Africa whilst the company was being created; it was chosen because the Bible stories are familiar in these Christian communities. It was developed very gradually until the group became a virtual family of unlimited potential which, with mutual support, has gone on to triumph from year to year. It jumps from humour with Noah's family to almost unbearable tragedy with the Crucifixion. Everything is shown in the largely unrestored space with simple, improvised props on the stage, auditorium and balconies - an ideal venue for theatre of the imagination. Based on the Chester Mystery Plays it is given, without subtitles, in a mix of English & Afrikaans, Xhosa & Zulu. Feeling our way through the familiar Old and New Testament stories in those incomprehensible languages brings us closer to the world from which the company has come. For a second viewing of the DVD I found myself frustrated by the lack of the usual subtitled choices one expects (there are long passages of dialogue in the second act without music and with only a small proportion of the words in English). Despite my own enthusiasm, I was unable, on account of the polyglot presentation, to persuade a guest to be patient and 'stay with it'. Many viewers for whom not even one of those languages is their own might feel similarly, and perhaps more strongly so? The insert leaflet carries no information, only advertisements for other titles from Heritage Theatre. The cast list below is scanned and copied from the DVD box cover. But don't hesitate to purchase; this is a unique DVD and a show which you will nonetheless want to see and hear again, maybe as often as the St Matthew Passion!
Ibali looTsotsi (a South African interpretation of The Beggar's Opera by Mark-Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood) was one of the toughest projects to take to an English audience familiar with its tunes. As with The Mysteries, The Beggar's Opera is given multilingually in the company's mother tongues including Xhosa & Zulu, Afrikaans & English. The story is enacted so vividly that it is easy to follow in general, if not in the detail of every exchange. It is re-imagined at Wilton's in a combination of "old England and new South Africa" - (surfing the Web for The Beggar's Opera I chanced upon the whole text, to read or download free, a valuable resource). The instrumental accompaniments are mainly percussive, and many of the familiar tunes from the Gay/Pepusch original are given unaccompanied, which during the first run seemed to us to have over-taxed some of the singing actors. Those doubts had faded away when we saw it again at Wilton's, for a short run before embarking upon a USA tour. There was a far greater confidence and the familiar tunes came over as angrily and poignantly as ever they had been in more conventional versions. All this great company's productions have been notable for the energy of everyone involved, raising the roof in this historic venue. Peter Grahame Woolf Guest
productions at Wilton's have included Cavalli's
Orion by venetianOpera and many events at this summer's
Spitalfields Festival
will be held there. See also June 2001 review of The Mysteries
& of the same company's stunning Carmen,
which should also be considered for revival and filming.
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Wilton's
venerable and still dilapidated Victorian music hall, not far from
the Tower of London, is the base of 