‘Xova’ returns to State Theatre

Xova, a production written and directed by Joseph Komani – the winner of the 2019 Standard Bank Gold Ovation Award – will show at the South African State Theatre from September 11 to 29.

Xova’s season at the State Theatre (Africa’s biggest theatre complex) follows its competitive campaign at the National Arts Festival in July, where it won gold to top the fringe programme which featured over 500 works in various disciplines.

Produced by the State Theatre in association with the Ozone Fellas, the performance art piece examines father absenteeism in the upbringing of children to highlight the brunt women carry in solo parenting.

Named after a Xhosa word denoting the mixing of dough for baking, it’s a metaphor used as the process of raising a child.

Picture: Mark Wessels

The show employs movement with some text in Xhosa through its narration. It features an all-women cast led by household names Charmaine Mtinta and Zimkhitha Nyoka.

Komani and the production progressed with speed through the State Theatre’s development programmes.

In June 2017, the production debuted at the theatre’s Youth Expressions festival. Komani was then selected into the 2017- 18 Incubator Programme which equips semi-professional artists with training that prepares them for the mainstream industry.

“It has been a very tough journey,” says Komani. “To tell a universal story with an African language such as Xhosa without using any projection of interpretation and have different audiences (white and black) understanding the storyline, that has been a highlight for me,” he said.

Komani was born in 1990 in East London (Mdantsani), Eastern Cape. His love for theatre started in 2007 when he enrolled at the Moonyth Drama House.

Picture: Mark Wessels

In 2009 he wrote his first one-man show titled The Interpretation inspired by Gerard Sekoto. The show performed under the State Theatre’s Mzansi Fela festival.

His writing and directing grew tremendously to have him co-write a play called Twisted with the renowned Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom and he never looked back.

The show will preview on September 11 and 12 ahead of the grand opening night on Friday, September 13.

Info

• Ticket prices range from R100 to R120 at Webtickets, online and over the counter at Pick n Pay stores nationwide.
• For group, school and corporate bookings, patrons can contact the State Theatre’s sales department on 012-392-4000.

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