Antigone (not quite/quiet): Short Baxter season

Antigone (not quite/quiet), directed by Mark Fleishman and the first in a series of four productions by the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies and Magnet Theatre, runs for a short season only at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio until 28 September.

Exploring the concept of “tragedy”, it is the product of an exciting five-year research project on Re-imagining Tragedy from Africa and the Global South (RETAGS), which began at the beginning of 2019, led by Fleishman and Mandla Mbothwe, and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

This hard-hitting new work, subtitled Nanganiki Okungcwele Ezinjeni (isiXhosa for “Give not unto dogs sacred things”), explores the nature of protest and responses to power, untangling South Africa’s current tragic reality. Not a production of Antigone, but rather a series of responses to the original play, it is created in three parts – exposing the impossibility of escaping the country’s colonial history; giving voice to the youth to protest against the authority of the state that acts to silence them; and the complicity of the those in power that brought South Africa to this tragic point.

The ensemble is led by Jennie Reznek, with Abigail Mei, Balindile ka Ngcobo, Carlo Daniels, Jason Jacobs, Luxolo Mboso, Kanya Viljoen, Motlatji Mjamba, Sityhilelo Makupula, Sivenathi Macibela, Sive Gubangxa, Siyavuya Gqumehlo, Sizwe Lubengu and Yvonne Msebenzi.