THEATRE: Sifiso Maseko
SALAELO MAREDI, resident director at the Market Theatre for 1997, says: “I hope to make the Market more accessible to traditionally isolated persons. If I have my way, it will become like a home to these people.”
His first production at the Market, Blackage, was inspired by an article on corruption in the pension system. He has created a piece that protests against ill treatment of the elderly. A humorous courtroom drama with the odd song and dance routine, Blackage is there to stimulate debate, reflection – and provide entertainment.
The cast of 10, which includes Don Eric Mlangeni, Baby Cele and Arthur Molepe were hand picked by Maredi. “Most importantly they all share the vision of a ‘Peoples’ theatre’,” says Maredi.
In Blackage this vision gives voice to the treatment of senior citizens in the hands of unscrupulous state institutions. And again Maredi reacts against the belief that a woman’s place is in the kitchen. How better to counter that view than to have an AK47-toting woman judge or doctor.
Essential to this new black age is tolerance. Though some ideas in the play counter traditional African conventions, they do not mark a loss of “Africanness”, but rather an affirmation of it.