Thato Machona, Aubrey Lodewyk and Peace R. Nzirawa in Mandela Trilogy at the Royal Festival Hall, London. Picture: Victor Frankowski
Mandela Trilogy tours the UK and Ireland until 24 September 2016. This review refers to the performance at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 1 September and its associated cast.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Epic stories warrant recounting through epic works of art. The point is abundantly demonstrated by Michael Williams, Péter Louis van Dijk, and Mike Campbell’s Mandela Trilogy, first performed in Cape Town in 2010 (as African Songbook: A Tribute to the Life of Nelson Mandela) to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, and given its European premiere two years later at the Wales Millennium Centre. In its current month-long tour of the UK and Ireland, however, its nature as a musical tribute to one of the 20th century’s great political icons is felt somewhat differently, in light of Mandela’s passing in late 2013.
Mandela Trilogy follows the eponymous protagonist on a six-decade journey across its three acts, each of which features a different singer in the central role. The prologue offers a glimpse of the extraordinary story to come, through its exchange between the imprisoned Mandela and the Whiteman (Minister of Justice). Act I then takes the audience back to Mandela’s childhood in the Transkei, his tribal initiation ritual, and his move to Johannesburg.
Act II, set in the culturally vibrant Sophiatown of the mid-1950s, witnesses the striking repercussions of the government’s apartheid policy as well as Mandela’s political activism. After the interval, Act III focuses on Mandela’s successive incarceration in three different prisons, ending with his release after serving a total of 27 years.
The score, ebullient yet emotive, dramatic yet defiantly optimistic, is characterised by its combination of classical, traditional and jazz music, together with spoken narration. The outer acts, composed by van Dijk, adopt a notably operatic vein given their through-composed nature and their drawing out of the individual lines of Williams’ libretto, but they are nonetheless remarkably accessible.
The transitions between contemporary opera and indigenous rural music in Act I are alluringly seamless, and this incorporation of South African traditional song helps to offset the sense in which the story of a leading anti-apartheid campaigner is being expressed through an artistic medium deep-rooted in white European traditions.
By contrast, the jazz idioms of Act II, for which Campbell takes over as composer, herald a well-judged change of pace, as well as yielding the regular verse structures more readily recognisable from popular music and musical theatre, resulting in a blend of genres that serves to strengthen the work overall.
The provision of surtitles, a standard practice in opera, is helpful not only when the libretto reverts to Xhosa, but also at points in Act I during which the singers’ mike levels may benefit from being slightly increased so as to match the full-bodied textures of the 40-piece orchestra conducted by Tim Murray. Conversely, the welcome inclusion of a rousing full-company encore is unquestionably indebted to the conventions of musical theatre.
Thato Machona’s impassioned performance as Mandela 1 is second only to Aubrey Lodewyk’s commanding interpretation of the incarcerated Mandela 3, whose central Act III soliloquy is one of the most profoundly moving passages in the whole production.
The letter-perfect partnership of the charismatic Peace R. Nzirawa as Mandela 2 and the equally show-stopping Zolina Ngejane as club singer Dolly lie at the heart of Act II, in which Williams’ direction also particularly shines, at least in the work’s semi-staged version presented at the Royal Festival Hall as part of the Southbank Centre’s Africa Utopia festival.
Commendable performances are also delivered by many of the company’s supporting actors. Lukhanyo Moyake as Mandela’s childhood friend Justice complements Machona’s Mandela effectively, while Tina Mene realises the role of the future leader’s mother with admirable conviction. Adrian Galley as Father Huddlestone portrays a sympathetic, earnest ally to Nzirawa’s Mandela, and Derick Ellis is a formidable political adversary as the Whiteman.
But it is Ngejane, Pumza Mxinwa, and Philisa Sibeko – respectively playing Mandela’s former partner Dolly, current wife Evelyn, and future spouse Winnie – who share the standout number ‘Winning Hearts and Minds’, rightly afforded pride of place towards the end of the first half, in which their characters reflect on the iconic protagonist from their different standpoints.
The division of the lead role between three singers, while it yields occasional moments of uncertainty as to exactly who is playing Mandela, is an artistic imperative providing physical manifestation of the depiction of different aspects of his character.
The result perhaps resembles a triptych more than a trilogy, but there is a clear sense in which the three acts represent the protagonist’s coming of age, followed by a more ‘human’ Mandela, and finally the political prisoner. The inclusion of the prologue is similarly judicious in that it enables the audience’s immediate engagement with Lodewyk as the most enduring of the three Mandelas, the account of whom is explored in depth only following the interval.
Cape Town Opera’s excellent touring production of Mandela Trilogy is simply unmissable given the broad appeal of its assorted styles, the power of its storyline and the strength of its realisation in performance. A commemoration of adversity and celebration of diversity, this artistic monument to one of the most inspirational figures of modern times will surely prove to be the cultural highlight of the season.
Christopher Wiley
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