SOUTH AFRICAN ACTRESS MOVED KITFEST AUDIENCE TO TEARS
Out of all
the performances I was able to see during the ten-day Kenya International
Theatre Festival (KITFEST) at Kenya Cultural Centre, none was more
breath-taking or more brutally honest than the one staged by South African
actor Kekeletso Matlabe
‘Chronicles
of a Whore’ was ‘Keke’s one woman show based on the true story of Glenda, a sex
worker who she’d met while researching her final theatrical project to present
to her mentors at the world-renowned Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg.
“Glenda’s story
still makes me weep,” said Keke during the Q&A that followed her
heart-wrenching performance at Kenya National Theatre.
“Normally, I don’t stay after a performance of this piece since it takes so much out of me emotionally, I need time alone to unwind,” she confessed to BDLife.
She made an
exception last Thursday night since her audience clamored to learn more about
how she’d shaped and scripted Glenda’s tragic story, a classic and cruel case
of sexual violence.
Glenda had
been raped at age 7 and then again at age 9, each time by different uncles. Her
life had essentially gone down hill from there. But Keke managed to gain
Glenda’s trust, first by speaking to her in her mother tongue, Tswana, and then
spending time listening to all the graphic and painful details of her life with
empathy and nonjudgmental understanding.
This
wouldn’t be the first time Keke had scripted and staged a story about women.
Growing up in a small town in the Free State, she had performed in many school
and church plays. But it was one called ‘Sisterhood’ about four best friends,
that got her a three-year scholarship at the Market Theatre Lab in Johannesburg.
Coming from
a family of educators and church men, they had been pleased when she got a
degree in accounting, but rejected the idea of her having a career in acting.
“I told them
I’m happiest when I’m on stage. I told them I’m a storyteller and that is who I
am,” she said, and off she went to Johannesburg.
Following
those three glorious years at the Market Theatre Lab, being mentored by some of
South Africa’s greatest performers, Keke stayed on for seven more years
performing at the Market Theatre as well as at the Soweto Theatre and the
Johannesburg Civic Theatre.
“My
accounting skills also came in handy when I worked the front-of-house, taking
tickets and keeping track of membership and sales,” she said.
Currently,
back in her home town in the Free State, Keke has a number of gigs going at
once. Her main one is as artistic director of the Bokamoso Art Centre which was
started by one of the original stars in the South African stage performance of
The Lion King, Sello Molefi. “Sello is still performing Lion King, but he’s now
based in Australia. He essentially left the Centre to me,” Keke says.
It hasn’t
been easy, especially as her village isn’t a hotbed of contemporary culture.
Nonetheless, through a program that came out of the Market Theatre, supported
by the International Arts Organization, ASSTEJ, Keke became a certified
‘facilitator’ who travels to schools and facilitates arts programs both for
students, (grades four
[ms1] through
six) as well as for their teachers.
“We cover
everything from dance, drama, and music to visual arts, film, video, and
fundraising,” adds Keke who just recently returned from a six-month film
training course in Johannesburg.
“Having been
trained as an actor, it was fascinating to learn more about directing,” says
Keke who has already begun writing scripts for film.
She barely
completed that course when it was time to come to Kenya for KITFEST. “I had
been invited by Kevin [Kimani, the LITFEST founding father] in 2019 but it was
too late for me make it that year,” she said. “Then came COVID in 2020, but I
was determined to make it this year,” she adds.
The problem
was her country’s Ministry of Sports, Arts, and Culture. It cancelled her air
ticket at the last minute, so Keke was left stranded. What to do?
Fortunately,
she was able to conduct several poetry fundraisers, performing her own poems
and inviting other spoken-word poets to share at open mic sessions at her
Centre. Finally, her family chipped in to help her buy a round-trip ticket for
R12, 600.
It was a
challenge for her to make here. But as the other South Africa company, Intokozo
Theatre Productions couldn’t get visas in time, it was only Keke who
represented a thriving theatre scene currently underway in her country. And she
did it very well!
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