Gugulethu Seven killings the focus of powerful play

11 June 2019 | Story Supplied. Photo Mark Wessels. Read time 2 min.

Siyavuya Gqumehlo in G7: OKWE-BOKHWE, directed by UCT lecturer Mandla Mbothwe and highlighting the killings by apartheid security forces of the Gugulethu Seven.

The multiple award-winning production G7: OKWE-BOKHWE (Like/Of a Goat), directed by University of Cape Town (UCT) lecturer Mandla Mbothwe, will be staged at the P4 Studio at the Hiddingh Hall campus from tomorrow, 12 June, ahead of its run at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown later this month.

Originally devised by Mbothwe, a lecturer at the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (CTDPS), the powerful production is based on the historical records around the killing of the Gugulethu Seven, young members of the resistance arm of the ANC, Umkhonto weSizwe (MK). They died on 3 March 1986 in an ambush at the hands of the apartheid security forces.

He worked on the concept with the fifth cohort of trainees on the Magnet Theatre’s full-time training and job creation programme 2017/18, who now return as graduates and third-year interns to perform the production for the 2019 tour.

The Magnet Theatre is one of the country’s best-known independent physical theatre companies, aimed at transforming young lives and the industry as a whole. It was co-founded 31 years ago by Professor Mark Fleishman, director of the CTDPS.

Catch the show at the P4 Studio, Hiddingh Hall campus, Orange Street, Gardens between 13 and 22 June. There will be a 12 June preview at 19:30, with the show running on 13, 14, 18, 19 and 20 June, also at 19:30. There will also be matinees at 14:00 on 16, 21 and 22 June.
Tickets, at R80 or R50 for students, are available at Webtickets.
Tickets for the National Arts Festival shows, from 27 to 29 June, are R80 and can be booked at www.nationalartsfestival.co.za.

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