By BRUCE DENNILL
Hlakanyana: The Musical / Directed by Janice Honeyman / Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre, Auckland Park, Johannesburg
The launching of a new original stage musical is always reason for celebration, and for the team behind Hlakanyana, the hardships of developing the work under Covid-enforced restrictions have only made the achievement of bringing it to an audience that much sweeter.
Creating and developing the script and music was a collaborative process that began and ended in person but which necessarily involved remote conversations and swapping of ideas in the middle.
The result is a stylised take on the story – well-known African folklore – of Hlakanyana, a cunning trickster born in mysterious circumstances into the royal family of a village called Kwakhe. Tales of dysfunctional families are legion, but though many of the themes of those stories (identity and belonging among them) are shared across cultures and countries, this is a vastly different version when compared to something like the narratives of the Brothers Grimm.
A cast of eight play multiple roles, allowing for a wide range of perspectives and modes of expression. They are made to work hard, using physical theatre techniques in addition to singing, dancing and acting in order to transform a single, simple, striking set – a semi-circular wooden boardwalk, accented with colourful stakes – into a village, a fireplace, the home of a leopard and more.
Hlakanyana features in Zulu and Xhosa mythology, and the story is told in a mixture of these languages and English. This raises the bar in terms of its authenticity, but does mean that audience members who are not multi-lingual are going to miss some of the nuances of the script, particularly when, as is occasionally the case, a character’s whole monologue is conducted in one language (versus other sections where translated phrases are uttered alongside each other).
There are fewer such challenges in the music which, although it is sometimes vaguely avant-garde (repetitive discordant passages that help support a mood, for instance), regularly features some pleasingly complex compositions with intriguing counter-melodies and excellent vocal interplay from the cast. Sandi Dlangalala, as the title character, is especially impressive, displaying remarkable vocal purity across a very wide range. Dolly Louw consistently lifts energy levels with her powerful projection, and Mphumzi Nontshinga is able to clearly differentiate the quartet of characters he plays via their distinctive vocal stylings.
The live band – piano, contra-bass and a percussionist – provide excellent and unconventional backing throughout, with the latter musician, Xolani Magengenene, introducing a wide palette of fascinating sounds.
There is perhaps room for more character development than is currently the case – Hlakanyana’s reputation for trickery is only established in two incidents (a useful convention in children’s theatre, where attention spans are short, but less so here), meaning that prior knowledge of the folk tales in which he stars is needed to really understand what he’s about, and the resolution of the story feels a touch simplistic. But there is much of note here, and the piece’s style and the cultural heritage celebrated mean it can and should make significant inroads into markets outside of the established Broadway- or West End-reflecting mainstream.