Tshepang
National Arts Centre, Studio Theatre
Ottawa, ON
March 10-21, 2009
By Gillian Carr
A horrific event can define a community for a long time, particularly in cases when the details are so unimaginable and unthinkable in their brutality. In 2001, a small village in the northern cape of South Africa skyrocketed to international attention when it was reported a nine-month-old girl had been viciously raped and that her injuries were so severe that doctors weren’t sure she would survive. The aftermath of this event is dealt with in the NAC’s new play, Tshepang.
This hour and ten minute production is quite obviously not for those looking for a light evening’s entertainment, but neither is it the dark miasma of despair the subject matter might first suggest. Instead, it offers stark insight without sugarcoating or resorting to shock value, and is leavened with flashes of humour and hope, giving the audience much to contemplate after they leave the theatre.
While newspaper stories and television reports focused on the stomach-churning details of the rape and the arrest of the 6 men accused of committing the crime, South African director and playwright Lara Foot Newton’s script takes the story past lurid details to the emotional core. The story is centred on two individuals at the heart of this tragedy, Ruth (Constance Didi), the mother of “baby Tshepang” (as the child became known) and Simon (Mncedisi Shabangu), the man who has loved Ruth from afar since childhood.
Crushed by her failure to prevent the rape of her daughter, Ruth has chosen not to speak in three years, spending her time working diligently in her village, in hopes her daughter might one day be returned to her from foster care. Shunned by others in the village, she has only Simon to rely on.
With Ruth mute, Simon is the sole voice to the play, storyteller of his own views and those of the other villagers. A veteran of numerous worldwide productions of Tshepang, including in his native South Africa, Mncedisi Shabangu offers a powerful performance as Simon. He cycles between light-hearted humour, tenderness, confusion and blinding rage in attempts to verbalize his emotional response to the rape, leaving the audience feeling slightly whiplashed, but ultimately his conviction sells the role.
A lesser actress might be overshadowed by Shabangu’s performance, especially in a non-verbal role, but Constance Didi holds her own as Ruth. The emptiness of her face, and mechanical motions of one who has lost all hope are unsettling to watch, but no less captivating than Simon’s often manic actions.
The NAC’s Studio Theatre is appropriately intimate for this production. Built in the shape of an amphitheatre and with a 300-person capacity, the stage offers the audience a close space with the actors, but it is also large enough that there is room to look away if necessary, for certain brutish scenes. The set is sparse but effective, offering only props relevant to the story – Simon’s hand-carved statues, a salt mound, small houses signifying the village, and the tiny bed that Ruth ties to her back as penance for her failure.
After seeing this play, it is difficult to think well of humanity – baby Tshepang was not a unique case, as 20,000 children are estimated to be victims of child rape in South Africa every year. Despite this, Newton’s script is as much about the human capacity to forgive and the path to redemption as it is about documenting the atrocity. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but taking a cue from the real-life story, baby Tshepang survived the attack and still lives in South Africa today.
Her name, in Tswana, means hope.