{"id":65,"date":"2017-10-12T15:17:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-12T15:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=65"},"modified":"2017-11-22T11:44:53","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T11:44:53","slug":"theatre-review-the-suitcase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/12\/theatre-review-the-suitcase\/","title":{"rendered":"THEATRE REVIEW: THE SUITCASE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lancaster University had yet another works outing at the Dukes on the 28th September. Your correspondent is sure there were some people at the show who were not Lancaster University employees but that particular evening it did feel that they were very much in the minority. They were gathered to watch a performance by the Market Theatre from Johannesburg, South Africa as part of a five city English Tour. The play was \u2018The Suitcase\u2019 as developed by the company\u2019s artistic director Sibongeleni James Ngcobo from a short story by Es\u2019kia Mpphahlele. Based on a true story, the play tells the story of a newly married young couple (Timi and Namhla) who leave their rural village in 1950s South Africa, for the bright lights of Durban. With few savings and scant possessions and no work to be had Timi, brilliantly played by Siyabonga Thwala, starts to lose his moral compass. Desperate to provide for his pregnant wife he steals a suitcase not knowing what might be inside; an act which has frightening consequences.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a wooden pallet in the centre of the stage stands a table, chair and a shelf. To one side of the pallet is a small wooden bench; to the other, a dustbin. The sprawling, hostile city that surrounds this one-room hub is brought to people-filled life by two ‘storytellers’, Molatlhegi Dube and Nhlanhla Lata. Timi\u2019s route through the city circles the little room where Masasa Mbangeni\u2019s Namhla tries to keep hope alive.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hugh Masekela provided the perfect soundtrack to the piece – bright, jazz shaded with blues and echoes of hymns (a stunning live vocal trio and guitarist), which amplified the story\u2019s scope.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was one of a three night run at the Dukes and was a wonderful experience, evocative, visual, moving and full of sharply detailed performances, humour and deep humanity. Of course the relationship between the University and the Dukes is a symbiotic one but on nights such as these we should be very pleased, living in our small provincial city perched on the North West corner of England, that we have access to such high quality international theatre.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lancaster University had yet another works outing at the Dukes on the 28th September. Your correspondent is sure there were some people at the show who were not Lancaster University employees but that particular evening it did feel that they … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[14,121,16,15],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-dukes","tag-issue-166","tag-performance","tag-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-13","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":248,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/mark-thomas-a-show-that-gambles-on-the-future-a-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":65,"position":0},"title":"MARK THOMAS: A SHOW THAT GAMBLES ON THE FUTURE. A REVIEW","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 7 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Mark Thomas was back at the Dukes on Wednesday 29th November. After last year's poignant, moving and very funny theatre show 'The Red Shed' (see subtext 156) he returned to the Dukes with more traditional stand-up fare. This time it's just him, a microphone, a few scraps of paper and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":459,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/letters-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":65,"position":1},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, This week our VC wrote to tell us that Lancaster would have supported the ACAS deal. But it is also true Lancaster would have supported the original UUK\/USS proposal (perhaps reluctantly) which amounted to little less than criminal theft of our pensions. This week our VC also wrote\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":467,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/15\/review-courtney-pine-and-the-inner-city-ensemble\/","url_meta":{"origin":65,"position":2},"title":"REVIEW: COURTNEY PINE AND THE INNER CITY ENSEMBLE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 15 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Following Dave Spikey\u2019s show at the Grand (subtext 174), your correspondent visited the same theatre to see quite a different artist a few days later, along with some familiar faces from Freehold and other Lancaster environs, plus some well-known faces from the University. They had come to see Courtney Pine.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":159,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/queen-albert\/","url_meta":{"origin":65,"position":3},"title":"QUEEN ALBERT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Your cultural correspondent squeezed into a packed Dukes on Monday (6th November) to watch a screening of 'The Death of Stalin' - a brilliant film, a creative mixture of grim and laugh out loud funny. This was followed by a question and answer session with one of the screenwriters on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "review"","block_context":{"text":"review","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/review\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":166,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/down-a-painful-memory-lane\/","url_meta":{"origin":65,"position":4},"title":"DOWN A PAINFUL MEMORY LANE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Readers may recall that during our review of the last Mark Thomas gig at the Dukes we promised you tell more about the University and the Miners' Strike of 1984\/85. 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