Adam Spiegel
presents
The Wilton's Music Hall production of
Yiimimangaliso
"The Mysteries"
REVIEWS from non-British press & on-line sources
The Wall Street Journal Europe | Friday/Saturday/Sunday April 5 -7, 2002 www.wsj.com
An Energetic 'Mysteries' Brings The Audience to Its Feet
by Paul Levy
Every once in a while a play comes along that brings the audience (even the critics) to their feet. Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood's "The Mysteries" is the unlikely vehicle that is transporting audiences, and making them shout with joy and pleasure. A South African musical version of the Chester Mystery plays, it tells stories from the Old and New Testaments from the Creation to the Harrowing of Hell, with a multi-racial cast, and using several South African languages and musical traditions, including English, Dutch, Afrikaans, and the "click" languages, Xhosa and Zulu. The score is mostly vocal, with the instruments played by the versatile cast being mostly percussive, using found objects from scrap yards, from wooden boards to sheets of metal.
The energy of this play is almost overwhelming, so much so that its primitive religious content simply becomes the peg for some superb performances, such as the comic Noah and Mrs. Noah of Sibusiso "Otto" Ziqubu and Ruby Mthethwa. As both God and Jesus, Vumile Nomanyama is supremely good. When two of the women suddenly reveal operatic voices, it somehow comes as no surprise - for everything about this glorious Broomhill Opera production is as good as it gets. Next stop for the troupe is the U.S.
Until May 18 at the Queen's Theatre, 51 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1, Tel. 44-20-7494-5040
Newsweek April 8 - 15, 2002
Theater
CLINKING BOTTLES WITH GOD
In 'The Mysteries', a talented South African cast provides a sly take on familiar Bible stories.
BY TARA PEPPER
IT'S AN UNLIKELY COMBINATION: Bible plays from medieval England and amateur performers from South Africa's deprived townships. But together they make the new West End musical "The Mysteries" one of the most powerful and innovative productions to hit London in years. Daring and irreverent, the show features a black Jesus and a jolly, rotund Noah who clinks beer bottles with God after the flood subsides. Night after night, audiences rise to their feet in applause, stirred by the sly take on familiar Bible stories, as well as by the cast's energy and spectacular singing. The raves have been so relentless that the show is now preparing to go on tour in America in May.
It's been a long, hard journey. When actor Vumile Nomanyama walked onstage during the show's first performance in Cape Town two years ago, white audience members marched out in protest of a black man's playing Jesus. But "The Mysteries" was designed to bridge racial and economic divides by drawing on common cultural heritage. And slowly, it seems to be succeeding. "Our task is not only building a new company but building a new audience says director Mark Dornford-May. "Building a totally colorblind audience is going to take at least 20 years, but a mixed audience is a beginning." Meanwhile the cast is creating a new vision of what South Africans can achieve. "People like us, who go abroad, contribute a lot when we come back," Nomanyama says. "We plow back the experience we get into our communities, so we can help up-grade standards.
The project got underway in 1998, when South African arts patron Dick Enthoven asked Dornford-May, who directs a theater in one of London's poorest boroughs, to form a company in Cape Town. Enthoven hoped to showcase South Africa's indigenous talent and bring its fractured communities together, and Dornford-May jumped at the chance. He began recruiting through the country's strong network of local choirs, which sent singers flocking to auditions. He didn't look at resumes because "people didn't have a past," he says. "They'd had no opportunities to do anything". Nearly 2,000 auditioned, "but a lot of people turned up simply because they wanted a job." In the end, he selected about 40 actors - mostly black, along with a few white and mixed-race cast members.
Then Dornford-May had to settle on a show. He chose to adapt the medieval plays from his hometown of Chester because "Christianity's a common thread," he says. "The Chester Cycle" as the plays are known, is the liveliest example of the genre, which dramatizes Bible stories from Adam and Eve to Christ's resurrection. To reflect the multi-cultural cast the company translated the text into Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, the main languages of South Africa, with a smattering of the original English text Dornford-May brought the show first to his little local theater, Wilton's Music Hall, last year, before taking it to the West End.
The cast's experience of apartheid infuses the medieval stories with a contemporary edge. "It helps a lot that we had to go through that ordeal," says Nomanyama. Dornford-May adds that among the performers "there's an acute understanding of poverty [and] the idea that if a person is saying something different from the authorities, that becomes a problem. There's an awareness that violence can break out unexpectedly. All this is because of apartheid". In the show, Pontius Pilate is depicted as a British governor who interrogates Christ in English. Jesus, crucified in jeans, replies to Pilate in Xhosa - the language of political prisoners like Nelson Mandela.
Even the show's simple staging is reminiscent of the apartheid era. While medieval productions dazzled the audience with flying angels and fire-breathing monsters, today's set consists of basic planks and crates. Musical accompaniment is created with oil drums, dustbins, sticks and bottles - a reminder that a work of rare beauty and sensitivity has been created out of the remnants of an ugly history. Luckily for audiences. that translates into a provocative and witty evening of song.
Celebration of 'The Mysteries'
International Herald Tribune Wednesday, April 3, 2002
It's not often you see God in a rainbow skirt. But then it's not often you see the Chester Mystery plays staged by a cast of 40 from South Africa. This multicultural celebration at the Queens is performed in four languages - English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu - and runs from the Creation to the Resurrection: It is an act of faith about healing, storytelling, music and dance that has become the runaway success of the West End season.
"The Mysteries" is the brainchild of two white Londoners, Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood, who saw a very early version of these South African stories and have built them into a show that will soon travel around the United States. True, it has several moments of "Godspell" rather than the Gospel, but the idea of a white Pontius Pilate amid the blacks, and of a Jesus surrounded by black security guards, suggests that the politics of apartheid are never too far from the biblical surface. But we are not talking Athol Fugard here, and though there are some good jokes, it is an evening of innocence and simplicity, the flames of Hell being the only theatrical device on stage that is not created by the actors and drummers.
The Chester Mystery plays were the first English theatrical event, performed on two planks with a passion, and it is good to see them transformed into a multicultural event of considerable if sometimes repetitive power. This remains a remarkable example of the local being made international.
It's not often you see God in a rainbow skirt. But then it's not often you see the Chester Mystery plays staged by a cast of 40 from South Africa. This multicultural celebration at the Queens is performed in four languages - English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu - and runs from the Creation to the Resurrection: It is an act of faith about healing, storytelling, music and dance that has become the runaway success of the West End season.
www.onlinereviewlondon.com
A Wilton's Music Hall Production
The Queen's Theatre
26 February - 18 May 2002
This jubilant, funny, moving, ecstatic explosion of song, dance and theatre – performed in a melodious mixture of Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans and English – reprises the Mystery plays which told Bible stories to illiterate believers in medieval times. The exhilaratingly energetic South African company starts with Genesis and ends with the Resurrection – leaving an immense gap between Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac and the Virgin Birth. God assumes the athletically dignified form of Vumile Nomanyama, whose majestic presence is opposed by a convincing and witty Lucifer, played by Andries Mbali. After his success in Eden with a steatopygously naked Eve, Lucifer is reduced to prowling the stage in almost-impotent but amusing malevolence. But then, the Mystery cycles predate Milton, Lucifer's most sympathetic poet.
"Otto" Ziqubu's Noah is hilarious, as is the recalcitrant Mrs Noah, played by Ruby Mthethwa. There is masses of comic ability in the company throughout, but what is most extraordinary about the production is the sheer volume of talent displayed in the arts both of voice and dance. Singing of great sweetness and power, and dancing of the beautifully instinctive kind familiar in South African tradition, make one long to hear and see more of both – and the evening proves far too short for the sheer pleasure given. The most touching moment of song occurs when Pauline Malefane's Virgin Mary and Pauline Du Plessis's Elizabeth sing together about impending birth; the most ecstatic ensemble singing and dancing comes as the climaxes to both halves of the performance. In all, it is wonderful stuff.
One supposes that the original Mystery cycles had serious intent, and perhaps this rendition of them does too, for those inclined. For those not inclined, it is evident that the myths and legends of the Judaeo-Christian tradition are sometimes compelling, and often entertaining, purely as narrative; which in part explains their hold over people who either did not have, or do not know, other (and sometimes better and less tendentious) narratives elsewhere in world literature. In this production the mythic quality of the tales is given full rein, and the result is great theatre, and great fun.
AC Grayling
www.premier.org.uk
The Yiimimangaliso Mysteries
Queen's Theatre; Wilton's Music Hall production; created by Mark Dornford-May and Charles Hazlewood.
I had never heard of The Mysteries - until a dear friend offered me a ticket last week. I admire any theatrical performance, but I was not prepared for the impact this particular production would have on me. This pioneering piece of theatre takes it's audience on a 'street level' journey of emotion where they feel like by-standers in a market square looking on and in to the greatest story ever told.
The Mystery Plays were popular medieval street theatre, dramatic versions of stories from the Bible. The first half commences with the stories of the Old Testament: the fall of the comical yet proud and nasty Lucifer; a spectacular account of creation which is magnificently moving; Cain and Abel; the flood (complete with an hilarious Noah and wife); Moses; and the heart-wrenching account of Abraham and Isaac.
The remarkable Vumile Nomanyama plays God in the first half - representing a powerful, masterful, righteous, removed yet compassionate and occasionally humorous character, whom we both fear and love as we look on.
After the interval 'God' cleverly becomes 'Jesus' and represents a character both similar and different altogether. Starting with the birth of Christ, well-loved New Testament Bible stories are told, including an unusual interpretation of the choosing of the disciples, Mary Magdalene, the raising of Lazarus, the dubious Judas, and finally the heart-stopping interpretation of Jesus' last days.
The splendidly dressed Caiaphas and the regal Annas scream their accusations from the boxes as if in court, while the formal and General-like Pilate tries to reason with a megaphone from the back of the stage. Meanwhile, Jesus groans and weeps whilst being humiliated on the main stage.
The crucifixion is raw, traumatic and unspeakably harrowing but beautifully acted. Nomanyama puts everything into his performance, and as he is raised up on a cross centre stage one feels like running to the foot of the cross and sobbing. (Instead I sat in my seat and wept with sorrow and thanks as this reminder of Christ's sacrifice unfolded visually before me, with the knowledge of the resurrection that nullifies death.)
Using simple yet effective techniques - basic pyrotechnics when Lucifer is cast out of heaven, the use of lighting is minimal yet effective - we are presented with a raw performance, staged using everyday objects. Based on South African vocals and rhythms, the noises which accompany the action are either sourced from human voices or scrapyard instruments. Most of all this effect was 'natural'. A lack of amplification causes us to be attentive to every word and action. The vocals are wonderfully African - uniquely diverse, rich and gathered from ancient and modern African sources.
The cast come from every background, every community and every circumstance in South Africa (many of them have had no formal training). The play is mostly performed in the actors' mother tongues - which include Xhosa (the wonderfully poetic and 'clicking' language), Afrikaans, Zulu and Dutch, and some in English. Enough non-English to make it mysterious, and enough English to let us know what was going on.
In my mind, the fact that many different languages are spoken adds to the 'by-stander' effect because that's what it must have been like in medieval times - the largely illiterate non-religious common folk must have relished seeing the performance of these powerfully dramatic stories acted out before them - though it must have seemed like a foreign language to them. Anyhow, here the acting makes up for what is lost in understanding. A poignant reminder of the power of the Gospel in word and action.
Because the dialogue isn't always in English, it often makes us reliant on our knowledge of the stories we know, and the power of the performance. For this reason I wouldn't recommend this to under 15's as it is a little confusing. I was sitting in front of a couple of children who really didn't have a clue what was gong on, and, annoyingly, were talking and chomping throughout the performance. Grrrr - one of my pet hates is people eating sweets in the theatre or cinema. Do try and get seats near the front of either the stalls or the dress circle as without amplification it is difficult to hear.
If you have the chance, please see this performance. It is magnificent in its simpleness and intense in its power.
But… please leave the crisps and sweets at home… 10/10
Crystal Callow
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Saturday 13th April 2002
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