Omoseye Bolaji’s play premiered in PE
The subtle transgressor, a superb play based on the Mangaung townships had its premiere at Uitenhage in Port Elizabeth in late March (2006). The play, written by novelist, poet and essayist Omoseye Bolaji (above) drew many audiences from the townships as it was brought to life courtesy of the Gladman Theatre. The youthful cast did themselves proud.
A didactic, yet gripping play, The subtle transgressor focuses on the abuse of youngsters, especially girls. It brings together the complicated relationships between the father, Job, the daughter Kate and peer pressure in general. Kate’s friends, Maria and Violet also loom rather large in the drama.
Questions that arise from the play include: what type of pressures do young women face nowadays; what makes them tick? How do they relate to their parents; how does their background fashion, and later reflect on what happens to them in future? How far can a parent go in trying to “discipline” their children?
As typical of Omoseye’s novels in particular, the play ends with a great twist at the very end which left the audience in the hall spellbound, shocked and shouting. Bolaji, invited to witness the production in Port Elizabeth said later: “When I wrote the play, I wanted to focus on some societal problems, but hopefully not in a too pedestrian way. Kate’s disturbing revcelation comes at the very end after the whole situation has built up,”
Rose Moseneke, who acted the pivotal role of “Kate” received a standing ovation for the vigour and reality she demonstrated in bringing her character to life. She handled her lines well, and was brilliantly word perfect near the end of the play when she went into a soliloquy of almost 30 lines of end-rhymes as demanded by Bolaji’s script; ending with:
“…The truth will surely set me free
Not that it fills me with glee
To be or not to be?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see
Yet nothing should shake my firm resolve
My fears and reticence to dissolve
As I first take care of something
To precipitate the firmness of my being”
Rose Moseneke explained: “After reading the play of Mr. Bolaji, I was so impressed and I felt that I was born to play the role of Kate, and it was fun doing so! Our dream is to take the play all over the place. Many of our young ladies can sympathise and empathise with the plight of Kate,”
Although in the original published play, Maria’s grandmother does not actually appear – although referred to in the text a few times – in the staged version this other “granny” actually appears and tells the three young ladies (Maria, Violet and Kate) not to make too much noise outside. Samson Mabuyakhulu, who directed the play for the premiere (and acted the part of Job) said: “I felt it would be more realistic for the audience to see the ‘granny’ at least once as she’s referred to a lot in the published play,”
On his role as “Job”, Mabuyakhulu smilingly said: “I did what I could to portray Job faithfully. In the play he’s so aggressive and fond of losing his temper so quickly. In real life I am not like that!”
Yet it would probably have been better – and certainly more realistic – if real grown ups had acted the parts of “Pule” and “Malome” as required by the original script. The young actors did their best but at times lacked the authenticity to play their roles with complete conviction. The sound effects were also sometimes tentative.
Meanwhile in Mangaung (Free State) itself, some writers and artist expressed disappointment that the play was first put on stage away in Port Elizabeth. Pule Lechesa, the well known author said: “Bolaji wrote the play based on Mangaung here, and in the text we have references to areas in the Bloemfontein townships. Why could it not have been premiered in the Mangaung townships? Maybe the lesson is that we should get our arts and theatre here in order,”
First issued and published by the Eclectic Writers Club in April 2006
