now it feels as though we are rehearsing something. the days go by so quickly now. as always, i guess, as you edge towards the end of the period here, time does seem to go faster.
the day is spent rehearsing the play. it is running at around 45 minutes, which is nice. the through line is sonny and his bible, though we don't want him to be the complete focus of the play, so we let the men's lives shine through as often as possible. this is one difficulty faced - how to edit down the transcripts. there is so much to choose from - what is the strongest and what is the best to link with the other men?
we have come up with reoccuring themes within the transcripts, stories & shakespearian quotes. they are:
unsung heroes
religion
betrayal
leadership
collective amnesia
we have a few stories about mobbs gqirana, who we have agreed is an 'unsung hero' of the struggle. one point of this play is to get the names of the lesser known vetran of the struggle known. but we can also reflect on the reason why the men are not as well known. one interview that i conducted in november 2oo8 mentioned mobbs & how he disappeared without a trace. it was with ahmed 'kathy' kathrada, kwede mkalipi & andrew mlangeni:
Kwede:
Have they confirmed that Mobbs is dead?
Kathy:
Yea, Mobbs is dead
Kwede:
Ohhh
Kathy:
Actually, he disappeared from the face of the earth.
Kwede:
Ohhh,
Kathy:
So the suspicion was that while he was being smuggled out from Port Elizabeth to Lesotho, they captured him & killed him.
Andrew:
He was killed by the police
Kwede:
Ohhh, shame. But was his grave, Where was he grave found?
Kathy:
No, nothing…
Andrew:
We know that he was dead, but we don’t know where he was killed.
Kathy:
This is just one of the speculations.
Kwede:
Mmmm,
Andrew:
He was definitely killed by the police….
Kathy:
Every now & then we are reading of people’s graves who are being unearthed –
Andrew:
Mmmmmm...
Kathy:
- last, about two weeks ago, they found about 11 graves?
Kwede:
Yes
Andrew:
We were dealing with a vicious enemy…
Kwede:
Oh, yes.
Andrew:
And the enemy had to be ruthlessly destroyed too. But we were not fortunately enough to destroy the enemy ruthlessly, (laughter). Because we ended that by by negotiations. But our intentions was to destroy the enemy ruthlessly when they were oh so ruthless to us.
--
mobbs deserves to be spoken about. in our little way, we hope to do that.
