Bluff director brings history to life

Bluff writer and director, Stephanie Jenkins, 26, will bring history to life with her Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause show at the KwaMuhle Museum on Saturday, 14 March.

Stephanie was born in Potchefstroom and matriculated at Grosvenor Girls’ High School.

“I am busy doing my PhD in drama and performance studies at the University of KZN and the main focus of my thesis revolves around museum theatre.”

“I have studied and taught drama and have worked extensively in the theatre as an actor, writer, director and researcher over the past seven years, working with theatre practitioners such as KickstArt Productions, Hooked on Books and Neil Coppen.”

“I wrote Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause using archival evidence relevant to the KwaMuhle Museum and have woven it together into a play that takes the audience through various rooms of the museum.”

As part of her PhD, Stephanie is conducting a study exploring the role museum theatre can have in teaching, questioning and learning about history. She is staging a number of shows specifically targeting Grade 11 history learners and has been contacted schools directly to extend an invitation. She also wants the public to experience the show, so she is staging two public performances on 14 March.

Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause takes place among the exhibits in the KwaMuhle Museum. It involves three actor-guides who take the audience around the rooms of the museum while acting out a number of historical characters and evoking narratives associated with the history of the museum.

There is an immersive element as the audience also becomes ‘part’ of the show as they move with the actor-guides from rooms such as the beer hall replica to the yard where people in the past had their passes stamped.

“I have always loved visiting museums and decided to incorporate my love for the past with performance in my Masters, which I completed at the beginning of 2018.”

“I created my first museum theatre play for my Masters, entitled Our Footprints, which took place in the Bergtheil Museum in 2017, exploring some of Westville and Pintetown’s German settler history.

“Museum theatre is a fascinating way to bring life into museums through real bodies and voices, that is not solely reliant on reading panels or audio guides. It allows for museum visitors to go on a journey with the actors, and are thus themselves encouraged as audience members to be part of and invested in the historical narratives being evoked.”

The actor-guides include well-known performer Mthokozisi Zulu, whose theatrical credits include KickstArt’s Alice in Wonderland, Charlotte’s Web, Cinderella and the Play That Goes Wrong. Zulu is joined by DUT drama graduate, Philisiwe Ntintili.

She has appeared in a number of shows for DUT, including the 2019 Chinese tour of UMjondolo and has recently starred in the Durban Adult Pantomimes, Twice upon a Mattress and 031 Temptations.

Rounding up the team is UKZN drama and marketing graduate, Qhawe Vumase, an exciting new presence in the Durban acting scene. He has recently appeared in Stephanie Jenkins’ Hudson and Watson and the Mystery of the Blue Diamond, which was staged in both Durban and the National Arts Festival in 2018.

The museum itself is rich in history as the building was formally the Native Administration Affairs Department where people of colour in Durban had to come to have their passbook or ‘dompas’ stamped to get work. A number of recorded interviews with people who either worked in the department or came to KwaMuhle to have their passes stamped have been dramatised in the play.

The other main focus of the museum that is explored in the play is the role the beer hall had as a form of control and resistance during apartheid. The audience will also be part of a court case that tried several women and men who were involved in the 1959 beerhall protests.

They will then enter into a replica of workers’ living quarters and hear about some of the arguments around the validity of such housing. Through the play the audience will be encouraged to encounter history in a new way as they journey with the actor-guides through the museum and the narratives present.

“The apartheid era in SA’s history is not my sole area of interest and I am exploring it because apartheid-era history is relevant to the KwaMuhle Museum and this particular play. I am not set on one area of history, but enjoy exploring a number of different aspects of the past, and will explore different narratives and sections from the past in other future productions.

“There has been a recent call for more Afrocentric history to be taught in schools with more focus on aspects such as archaeology, oral history and more history from the African continent at large. These are all important aspects of our collective history and it is important for us as South Africans, in all our differences, to explore our multi-faceted heritages and histories.”

Asked why she thinks it’s important for learners and the public to see Beer Halls, Pass Laws and Just Cause, Stephanie said:

“The play offers the opportunity for audience members to experience history firsthand through real human beings evoking the past. The opportunity to see historical Durban people and their stories ‘come to life’, through our senses, including smell and movement, offers an embodied experience of the past in the present.

“Theatre is something I would like to continue pursuing. I am a theatre practitioner and will continue to be part of, create and research works of theatre in the future.”

Public performances are on Saturday, 14 March at 12pm and 2pm at the KwaMuhle Museum, 130 Bram Fischer Road, Durban. Admission is free, however, booking is essential.  WhatsApp only to Stephanie on 081-846-7331 to book or for more information.

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