Amaxelegu, a Market Theatre play development product takes to stage
By CityLife Arts Writer
Amaxelegu is a brand-new play by award-winning actor, writer, director, theatre-maker, performance artist and all-round creative powerhouse, Qondiswa James. This edgy three-hander has emerged out of the Market Theatre’s Play Development Programme which was launched last year, and that focuses on unearthing and developing “fresh, urgent, or compelling” stories under the guidance of Artistic Director, Greg Homann.
In Amaxelegu, Qondiswa James curates a provocatively risqué yet relatable and beautiful story focussing on the bedroom dynamics of a young couple and their interactions with the woman who ‘cleans up after them’. The title roughly translates in English to “Messy People”. The play, which is mostly in English, includes some Xhosa. It’s a play about love in the time of non-monogamy, a journey into the complexity of present-day relationships. It is set in the bedrooms of the characters in a non-descript city in South Africa. They navigate the transactions of class and gender as they move between various private and domestic contexts.
Amaxelegu features an impressive cast which includes Shalima Mkongi, a UCT, AFDA and Waterfront Theatre School graduate in the role of ‘Thabisa’. Mkongi has several notable theatre and film roles under her belt including The Crucible, Cincinatti, Justice Served and Diamond City, in addition to being a sought-after voice actor. It also features Luxolo Ndabeni in the role of ‘Azola’. Ndabeni is a South African State Theatre product best known for roles in Lockdown (S1), Surviving Gaza and Gomora (S4).
Audiences can look forward to how the two will portray the private and social dynamics of the play’s central relationship as Thabisa and Azola navigate their day-to-day lives within the backdrop of gender and class as young, upwardly mobile-middle-class black South Africans.
Age Advisory: 16 (SNL)