The set by Dicky Longhurst provides the perfect evocation of a mean Gugulethu house and backyard. Slides and video footage are shown as if seen through the window and help to enrich the story with historical scenes of the time as well as homely, ordinary items like toothpaste and washing powder. These images aptly enhance the script which expresses how the personal and ordinary play out against the political and extraordinary.
Linda Biehl's capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation is probably fairly well known. The way in which she transformed the pain of losing her daughter into a force for good through the Amy Biehl Foundation is an iconic symbol. The story of Nontuthulezela Manqina, however is a very much lesser known story. She says, “I cannot help thinking that she is without her child because of my son, because of me.” And so she lets us into her world and recalls the events of a day that started just like any other day, but that changed her life for ever.
I found Thembi Mtshali-Jones' performance a bit patchy with some sections being very moving and evocative while others somehow lost intensity. Her telling of the murder itself was a bit flat, and I thought could have been enhanced by video footage. However the first meeting with her son after the murder was intensely moving.
This is a play that needs to be seen by South Africans. It reminds us of our history. It reminds us of the horrors that we have come through. And it reminds us of how pain can be used for transformation.
Mother to Mother runs at the Baxter till the 10 October.
