Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater set to take the world by Storm
New 2023 Tour Dates Announced – Hilton Arts Festival / The Market Theatre and Europe
Isidlamlilo/TheFire Eater the electrifying new one-woman show brought to life by acclaimed actor Mpume Mthombeni and theatre-maker Neil Coppen through their company Empatheatre begins a three-month tour starting in July to the Market Theatre (Johannesburg), The Hilton Arts Festival (Hilton KZN) and to three festivals in Europe.
The production will have its Johannesburg premiere at the Market Theatre (Mannie Mannim) from 21 July to 6 August before it plays at the Hilton Festival Hilton Arts Festival from 9 to 12 August and thereafter a month-long tour in Europe where it will be staged at the Noordezon Festival of Performing arts (Groningen Netherlands) 17 to 20 August, The Kampnagel International Summer Festival (Hamburg, Germany) 24 to27 August and La Bâtie – Festival de Genève (Switzerland) 1 to 3 September.
When Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater premiered at the 2022 National Arts Festival, it was met with rave reviews and standing ovations with many heralding it as a contemporary South African theatre classic. Coppen and Mthombeni’s play is set in a downtown women’s hostel in Durban, where we first meet sixty-something Zenzile Maseko (Mpume Mthombeni), a grandmother partially disabled and declared dead by the South African government’sHome Affairs’ decrepit system.
It is within the confines of this cramped room that Zenile reckons with Nkhulukhulu (God), recalling the unbelievable series of events that have unfolded across her lifetime. Zenzile, we soon discover, operated as one of the IFP’s (Inkatha Freedom Party) most feared assassins (nicknamed Impundulu/The Lightning Bird) in the build-up to the 1994 South African elections.
It is a past Zenzile has spent the majority of her adult life trying to erase, praying nightly to Nkhulukhulu and begging him to cleanse her of her past sins. But when the home affairs mistakenly declare her dead and are unable to reverse the error on their system, Zenzile finds herself cast into the middle of a Kafkaesque nightmare, forced to reawaken and embrace the vengeful spirit of Impundulu in an attempt to secure her survival.
Mpume Mthombeni sets the stage ablaze in a breathtaking tour-de-force performance that sees her shifting, between the feared IFP assassin Impundulu and the reborn Gogo longing to return to the house she’s building in her childhood village, iPharadise.
Zenzile’s dizzying, devastating, and often hilarious recollections propel the audience back and forth through time, traversing the shifting landscapes of KwaZulu-Natal and while charting critical events in the province’s post-1994 trajectory through to its present-day floods and insurrections. While the story offers an insightful look at the eddying cycles of violence and revenge that play out across generations, it is most of all a story about redemption, regeneration, and reinvention.
Together Mthombeni and Coppen alongside Dylan McGarry, are the co-founders of Empatheatre which sees the team forging creative responses to complex social concerns. The company was recently awarded the prestigious 2022 Bertha Artivism Award for their theatre and social-justice work as well as the 2023 Fleur Du Cap award for innovation in South African Theatre. Empatheare has recently held performances of their productions in Egypt, Rome, and New York.
The direction of Isidlamlilo is by Neil Coppen, lighting by Tina Le Roux, set by Greg King and sound design by Tristan Horton.
Isidlamlilo was made possible by the National Arts Festival (NAF) and later funding from the NAC PESP fund, with additional support and thanks to the Drama Department and the UFC (Urban Futures Centre) at Durban University of Technology.
Tickets for the Hilton Arts Festival can be purchased online from Monday 10 July on https://www.webtickets.co.za/ (Performance times: Wednesday 9 August at 6pm; Thursday 10 August at 6pm, Saturday 12 August at 10am)
Tickets for the Market Theatre run can be purchased here https://bit.ly/ISIDLAMLILOMarket
To make block bookings and discounts at The Market contact Anthony Ezeoke 011 832 1641ext 203/ 083 246 4950
For more information go to www.empatheatre.com.