Fishers of Men invited the Midrand Reporter to the opening show of their production called PATA at the TX Makeshift Theatre at Moses Molelekwa Arts Centre in Tembisa on 28 August.
The three-day production highlighted one of the most-ignored, yet, real problems faced by men in all of society.
When sharing the process he went through putting PATA (seSotho for ‘hide’) together, Kenneth Tumudi Mphahlele who wrote, directed, and choreographed the production, said that he started writing it back in June.
“I invited Solly The Poet to come work with me and we ended up putting together a piece before cutting it. Thereafter I started looking for dancers then went into the process of composing music for the show.
“We collaborated on those elements, ended up combining everything and PATA was born.”
Mphalele explained that the show is a biography of how he grew up and the people he grew up with. “I figured that as men we grow up differently. We learn a lot outside our homes in the streets, hence they say, ‘Ngwana o godisa ke sechaba’, a child is raised by the community.
“So I started coming up with the concept of PATA to highlight the fact that men do not talk as much as they should, we’d rather hide things inside instead.”
Mphahlele said that after going to initiation school one comes back as a different person, a ‘man’.
“You are told that you are a man at the tender age of 18, when in reality you are not a man, therefore everything about you has to change, how you view society and women.
“The message that I want to get across is that men should not close themselves up emotionally, as tough and muscular as we are, men are also human, we should come out and voice our concerns rather than keeping all our problems inside.
“We end up being depressed and suffering a lot because we are angry towards life in general which results in us releasing our anger on females. There is nothing like ‘Monna o shwela hari, monna ke nku’, (Men do not cry).”
Mphalele said that he aspires to take the production far, “We would love to take the show to the Johannesburg Market Theatre as well as the State Theatre in Pretoria, we are also looking for potential sponsors to help us get this message across as we operate as a non-profit organisation.”
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