PROJECTS
Projects
Indlela Yokuphila
In a captivating South African film, the ocean becomes a sacred realm for ancestral spirits. A child's innocent question leads their teacher, Nowandle, on a mystical journey of narration and operatic melodies. Young ancestors traverse underground streams and rivers, remembering their past homes. Ancient beings in the deep sea share ancestral wisdom before the spirit returns to the land, reborn through rainwater in a village. The film beautifully unites indigenous and scientific knowledge, unveiling the spiritual significance of the water cycle.
Umkhosi Wenala
The 60 minute musical (told in isiZulu and English) tells the story of two twins, a brother Nkosana and sister Makhosazana who inherit a kingdom after the disappearance of their mother, a queen, said to have drowned in the ocean. The two Nkosi’s, destined to rule together, are divided by circumstance and political forces beyond their control. After two decades of betrayal and conflict between their competing kingdoms, the situation further escalates with the arrival of a fence which cuts the communities off from their village and resources and resurfaces past tensions and new resentments.
Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater
Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater is set in a downtown womens’ hostel in Durban, where we first meet sixty-something Zenzile Maseko (Mpume Mthombeni), a grandmother partially disabled and mistakenly declared dead by Home Affairs’ decrepit system.
Lalela uLwandle
Weaving the stories, histories and contemporary concerns of diverse South African coastal communities into an Empatheatre production, Lalela uLwandle explores themes such as intergenerational environmental injustice, tangible and intangible ocean heritage, the myriad threats to ocean health and the lack of participatory democracy in ocean governance
Boxes
Over the course of four powerful scenes, the Empatheatre production of Boxes probes the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning, forced removals and gentrification in the city of Cape Town, examining notions of ‘development’ and ‘progress’ by posing the question: Who is really benefiting from all this so called progress?
The Last Country
The Last Country is an immersive theatrical production which explores the stories of women migrants hailing from the DRC, Zimbabwe, Somalia and rural KwaZulu-Natal. Through the stories of four extraordinary women, the audience listen to experiences of leaving home and arriving in Durban, where each must forge various strategies in which to remake a sense of belonging and create a place something like home.
Ulwembu
The multi-award winning production of Ulwembu was the result of the two-year research and play-making process exploring the street drug known as Whoonga. To create the script, the Empatheatre team listened to oral histories and testimonials from a broad cross-section of Durbanites and later transformed these accounts into an unforgettable documentary-theatre production around street-level heroin use in the city of Durban.
Mhlaba noLahle / Soil & Ash
Mhlaba noLahle (Soil & Ash) was an isiZulu theatre piece that was created by Empatheatre to address issues of sustainable rural development and social-justice around mining in the iMfolozi area. Working carefully with verbatim testimonials, the production worked to surface the nuanced reality of residents’ concerns around health, wellbeing, family and livelihoods, in the face of a large coal mining development.
