Morwa: The Rising Son By Tiaan Lubbe Morwa: The Rising Son is an original piece by Tefo Paya, directed by Warren Nebe, performed at the DFL Sexauctually festival in the Wits Dowstairs Theatre. On 27 August, another one of its successful shows appeared in front of an audience that pushed at the seams of the theatre. The piece explores the life and troubles of a boy as he journey’s to manhood, with the main character, Morwa (a Setswana word for Son), guiding us through it with anecdotes and stories of his experiences.
One, as a viewer, is immediately introduced to the themes of the play with a dramatic opening where Morwa undresses from his suit and tie that is clearly causing him pain. We are faced with a man, uncomfortable in his identity as one, struggling with society’s notions and actions towards him or as the description in the program puts it in the form of a question, “What defines or makes a man?” As one enters into the theatre one immediately sees the stage set with a male-gender sign laid out with clothing. Strange and subtle sounds fill the room, which I later realised was being made live by a musician sitting just off-stage. This setting and sound design created an atmosphere of intensity that fitted well as the opening sequence, described above, suddenly plays of in a spotlight. The sequence then transformed into a chanting, traditional dance sequence around the stage, with sounds made by Paya that contributed to the intensity. By the time Paya was in position to start the story, the audience was aroused and intrigued by the character. Although, the transition might have been to abrupt and momentarily off-putting and the narrator version of Morwa slightly shaky, Paya soon made the audience settle in with his story as he did. The play is in the genre of Impulse theatre, where the actor, in this case Paya, maintains a general structure of the narrative of the piece, but, as the title suggests, changes, adds and modifies the content according to impulse.
I was astonished when I heard this information as the performance was fluent and natural, a testament of Paya’s skill as a performer certainly. He had the audience hanging at his lips as he proceeded through the numerous anecdotes. He also embodies characters, transforming into them on stage with the use of a tie, scarf and other props. The transformations were exceptionally well executed with only the flick of the scarf or upward nudge of the tie to complete it, transforming his voice and whole physique with it. It gave me chills. There were, however, a couple of moments where I felt that the emotions were overplayed and dramatised. Though, I understand the intensity of the subject matter and the emotions of the character, I still felt that these moments might have been more powerful underplayed. One of these moments was when Morwa, after analysing his life, questions who is and then turns the question to the audience in a violent tone. To those familiar with Berthold Brecht’s techniques, this production would have reminded of many of them such a production element being displayed openly, like the live effects with all kinds of traditional instrument. More examples would be the change of costume of stage and the dominant use of narration to drive the plot.
The use of Brecht’s techniques, in a piece like this, was exceptionally powerful, effective and useful as it contributed to the atmosphere and affect on the audience. The use of relatable humour made the audience laugh at recognition and soon had them of their feet, albeit at the wrong time. The reason for this was an untimely blackout at a time of the iece that looked and sounded like an end. The audience had to sit down again after their passionate applause for the piece to really end. It ended in the way it started (by dressing himself in the clothes he undressed himself from) and I for one felt that this was unnecessary. The point of the piece had already been brought across effectively beforehand. However, after he dressed he proceeded into the audience and took a place among them, likely signifying the involvement of the audience and society in the stories told. This was an effective device, but not totally well executed. Fixing this slight problem, I believe, will give more impact to the already outstanding piece.
Overall, this was a piece that affected me in a profound way and I give praise to its creators.
