The Baxter Theatre has very kindly given the Amy Biehl Foundation Wednesday the 7th of October as an evening when all ticket sales go to the Amy Biehl Foundation.  The show starts at 19:30.  This is a powerful story by Sindiwe Magona about forgiveness and reconciliation, performed by Thembi Mtshali-Jones and directed by Janice Honeyman.  Tickets are R110 each and all proceeds go directly to the Foundation’s programmes in the townships.

Book for this show directly with Ilchen Retief on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Payment confirms your booking.  Banking details: 
Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, First National Bank, Adderley Street branch, Branch code:  201409, Account number:  62085677890, Ref:  Your name. 

Tickets to be collected from the Foundation offices (7th floor, No 1 Plein Street, Cape Town) by Monday, 5 October or at the Baxter Theatre on the evening of the 7th.  Please support us and for more information about the show, see below.

World premiere of Sindiwe Magona’s powerful story Mother to Mother at the Baxter

Renowned author Dr Sindiwe Magona’s compelling story of forgiveness and reconciliation, Mother to Mother, will have its world premiere at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from September 17 to October 10, at 7:30pm nightly.

Aptly entitled, Mother to Mother, brings together three of South Africa’s power-house women in the arts - writer Magona, director Janice Honeyman and actress Thembi Mtshali-Jones. Adapted for the stage by Magona and Honeyman, it is an imaginary personal testimony from one mother to another, beautifully portrayed by Mtshali-Jones, one of the country’s best-loved performers. Offering solace and explanation, the mother describes her feelings as she tries to make sense of the pressures and circumstances brought about by an oppressive system which drove her son to the crime.

While the story is fictional, it is based on actual events that happened in Gugulethu on 25 August 1993, when the young American Fulbright scholar, Amy Biehl, was murdered just months before South Africa became a democracy. Biehl was working in the townships helping to organise and get voters registered for the country’s historic first democratic election. The 26-year-old was stabbed to death the day before she was due to return home to California, USA. With a love of Africa and a desire to commit to service in South Africa, she received the Fulbright Fellowship to observe the role of women in transitional regimes. Having graduated as Valedictorian of her class with a passion for human rights and being the determined and enthusiastic individual that she was, Amy arrived in Cape Town in October 1992 to study at the University of the Western Cape, where she advocated for voters’ and women’s rights.

At the time the story resonated with Magona, who discovered that the tragic incident occurred close to her house in Gugulethu and that one of the perpetrators was, in fact, her neighbour’s son. Realising that it could easily have been her own son caught up in the violence of that day, she sympathised with both families and decided to write this fictional memoir. It is not an apology for the murder but rather a heartfelt account of an oppressed life marked by a turbulent period and difficult circumstances.

Eight men were arrested; four were convicted of murder and public violence and they were granted amnesty at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings. Amy’s parents, Peter and Linda, attended the hearings in 1997, the same year they started the Amy Biehl Foundation. The aim was to carry on the principles that their daughter championed, overseeing a myriad of projects that take proactive steps to reduce violence and empower people to become positive forces for change. Two of the men convicted of the crime now work for the Foundation.

Linda Biehl has read the book and is delighted that it will now become a play. She said, “There are so many people who have tried to make sense of it all. It has been beneficial for us to help people understand ‘our message’. And now with this play I can say to them: go read it, go hear it, go see it. This is an opportunity to learn from the experience and everything that life’s lessons have to offer.”  

Magona is equally excited, “I am floating. I feel like I am on air. This extends the life of the book and, most importantly, the lessons learnt from the tragedy and hopefully those which it will continue to bring, concerning forgiveness and understanding. People cannot live in war all the time. We have to strive to establish harmony. If we did not have a culture of ubuntu in this country we would not have had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

Magona is an author, poet, playwright, story-teller, actor and inspirational speaker. She has been published in the New York Times, the International Tribune, the Sunday Times, Cape Times, Cape Argus and numerous magazines. She last performed at the Baxter in 2007 in her own story I Promised Myself a Fabulous Middle Age, directed by Fatima Dike, as part of the South African season of the popular Play Ground performed play-reading series. She has also created an Aids play entitled VUKANI which has been performed in colleges, churches and theatres in the United States. Mother to Mother was her debut novel. Some of her other published works include Living, Loving and Lying Awake At Night, PUSH-PUSH! and other stories, To My Children’s Children, Forced to Grow, Beauty’s Gift and Please, Take Photographs.

The themes of redemption and forgiveness are important for the award-winning Thembi Mtshali-Jones, who brings this one-woman drama to life. She is widely recognised as one of South Africa’s most celebrated artists as a singer, actress and playwright. Since 2006 Thembi has been appearing in the international production of American director Michael Lessac’s Truth In Translation, which dealt with the TRC. The play opened in Rwanda in 2006 and a year later it was performed at the Baxter Theatre. Time Magazine wrote of her performance saying, “The raw gospel lament sung by Thembi Mtshali-Jones has extraordinary power, leaving the audience in pale shock as the interval lights come up.” She was nominated for a “Best performance in a musical” Naledi Award when it ran at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The production went on to receive a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Arts Festival and has since toured to Zimbabwe, the USA, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe.

On television she has appeared in the comedies SOS, Scoop Schoombie and Madam and Eve, and she was nominated for an International Emmy in 2004 for her role as shebeen queen Hazel Dube in the popular sitcom, Stokvel. Last year she performed in Nadia Davids’ Cissie at the Baxter Theatre and earlier this year she was seen in a BBC drama series, Silent Witness, as well as appearing in the feature film Themba.

“This work is a truly personal perspective of a mother’s pain. It is an expression of humour, tragedy, the ordinary and the extraordinary things that happen in everyday life,” explains Janice Honeyman who, through her work, believes in the fundamentals of forgiveness and acceptance. She was also involved in the early concept stages of Philip Miller’s TRC-inspired documentary Rewind: a Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony, directed by Liza Key. Mother to Mother comes weeks after her success as director of the hit production I Am My Own Wife which returns by popular acclaim for two weeks from 27 October to 7 November. She has just returned from Sweden with Cape Town Opera’s production of Show Boat.

The creative team is complemented by well-known designer Dicky Longhurst who is responsible for set and costumes; with lighting design by Mannie Manim, executed by Patrick Curtis and the composer/musical advisor is Neo Muyanga.

Janice Honeyman, Director
 
Janice Honeyman has had a prolific and successful career as a director. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards and won an FNB Vita Award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
 
A year later, she won the Fleur du Cap award for Best Director for Nothing But the Truth and Vatmaar. Janice has directed Athol Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Madiba Magic at the Baxter Theatre Centre. She also directed Freedom Too, a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall, as part of the Celebrate South Africa Festival.
 
In 2005 she received a Best Director Fleur du Cap award for Oom Wanja/Uncle Vanya. In 2005 she directed Twaalfde Nag and Exits and Entrances. In 2006 she directed the world premiere of Athol Fugard’s play Booitjie and the Oubaas, which was praised by audiences and media alike, as well as the Baxter Play>Ground performed reading of Shirley, Goodness and Mercy. Her production of Begeerte in 2007 won the Kanna award for Best Production at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival.
 
In 2007 she directed the full-scale world premiere of Chris van Wyk’s Shirley, Goodness and Mercy, which won three Naledi awards, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt and Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Baxter Theatre Centre, the Market Theatre and the State Theatre.
 
Janice had Johannesburg audiences in stitches with her festive pantomime Aladdin, before directing the offbeat nativity play Starbrite at the Baxter in 2008. Earlier this year she directed the highly acclaimed Baxter Theatre Centre and Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Tempest which was performed at the Baxter and in Stratford-upon-Avon and toured five cities in the UK, as well as John Kani’s Nothing But the Truth at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. Her latest production I Am My Own Wife has already garnered media and audience acclaim at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, and the Baxter Theatre Centre.

Thembi Mtshali-Jones, actress
 
Multi-talented Thembi Mtshali-Jones is widely recognised as one of South Africa’s most celebrated artists, singer, actress and playwright.

She was born in eMkhumbane, Durban, and grew up in KwaMashu township where she started singing in school concerts. In 1971 Welcome Msomi cast her in the original production of UMabatha (a Zulu adaptation of Macbeth) which was invited to the William Shakespeare Festival in London in 1971 and l972.

In 1973 she joined Meropa, a musical production by Louis Burke and Joan Brickhill and in the same year she landed the lead female role in the musical Ipi Tombi which toured all over the world including London’s West End and On Broadway in New York until she left the production in 1977.

She then worked with Hugh Masekela and worked with him in the USA until 1980 when she joined Miriam Makeba and toured with her in Europe, Africa and the US. Four years later she returned to South Africa and joined Sipho Gumede’s band Peace as a lead vocalist and released an album entitled PEACE. In l986 Thembi first appeared on local television as presenter of the children’s show Journey through imagination, followed by Ifa Lakwamthethwa and Phindi, both television dramas.

In 1987 she first worked with Janice Honeyman in Black and White Follies the Market Theatre. She performed in and co-wrote with Gcina Mhlophe and Maralin Vanrenen Have you seen Zandile which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 1988. She also performed in and co-wrote with Barney Simon Eden and other places and Women of Africa.

In 1988 Thembi played the lead female role in the film Mapantsula which earned her an FNB Best Actress Vita award nomination. It went on to win the Best New Film at the Cannes International Film Festival. From 1988 to1991 she starred in the highly successful television sitcom Sgudi’snayis, which became the most successful comedy show ever made in South Africa. She also composed and recorded the soundtrack for the series. 

Between 1991 and 1993, Thembi performed with the African Jazz Pioneers, as lead vocalist, in South Africa and Europe and recorded Shufflin’Joe with them. When Miriam Makeba returned from exile Thembi rejoined her on her Miriam Makeba with Dizzy Gillepsie tour in Europe and the United States.  In 1993 she organised Hugh Masekela’s return to South Africa concert, Sekunjalo, which toured countrywide and a dvd was recorded. Then in 1998 she had a residency at the Galluadette University in Washington DC. 

Other musical plays that Thembi performed in during the 90’s, directed by Janice Honeyman, were Once on this Island in Durban and Cape Town, La Cage Aux Folles and Juke Box Jol both at Johannesburg Civic Theatre. Another was Daughter of Nebo with Hillary Bletcher at the Market Theatre which then toured to New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music in the US. She also performed The Crucible with Lara Foot at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown and the Market Theatre.

In 1995 to 1996, she toured with Malcom Purkey’s musical Marabi in the UK and the US. While in the US she had a walk on role in Deep Impact movie produced by Steven Spielberg. Her favourite moment as a singer was when she was asked to sing Happy Birthday to President Nelson Mandela on his 80th birthday at Howard University in Washington DC and was broadcast live by CNN.

In 1999 Thembi co-wrote and starred in one-woman play, A Woman in Waiting, which was commissioned by the Joseph Paps Theatre in New York, based on own her life story, created, co-written and directed by Yael Farber. After it premiered at the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, it was invited to the Carthage Arts Festival in Tunisia where Thembi won the Best Actress Award for her performance.  In 2000 it won a Fringe First at Edinburgh Arts Festival. In 2001 the play ran on the West End, where it became the first one-woman play from South Africa ever to perform on the West End. During a UK tour that followed, she was nominated for Best Actress in the Manchester Evening Standard Awards. The radio version of the play won the 2002 Sony Academy Gold Award for Best Radio Drama.  Between 2004 and 2006 A Woman in Waiting was performed in Ottawa and Toronto, Canada; Atlanta in the US and Bermuda Island.

In 2004 Thembi was commissioned by BBC Radio 4 to write a play to celebrate the 10th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy. The Guardian newspaper nominated it as ‘pick of the day’ in the radio section of Arts and Entertainment. The BBC World Service chose it as ‘Play of the Week’ and was broadcast globally.

From 2003 to 2009 she starred in the popular sitcom, Stokvel, also by Penguin Film which was nominated for the International Emmy’s in 2004. Other television work includes guest appearances in e.tv comedies, SOS, Scoop Schoombie and Madam and Eve, and roles in the soapies Generations and Backstage.

In 2004 Thembi had a second residency in the USA - at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. The Mayor of Louisville made her an Honorary Citizen of Louisville and the Governor of Kentucky bestowed upon her the highest award by making her an Honorary Kentucky Colonel.

Since 2006 she has been appearing in the international production of American director Michael Lessac’s Truth In Translation which opened in Rwanda. For the Market Theatre run in Johannesburg she was nominated for “Best performance in a Musical” Naledi Award. For the Baxter Theatre season in 2007, Time Magazine wrote, “The raw gospel lament sung by Thembi Mtshali-Jones has extraordinary power, leaving the audience in pale shock as the interval lights come up.”  In the same year the production received a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Arts Festival and the play has since toured in Zimbabwe, US, Sweden, Northern Ireland and Eastern Europe.

Last year she performed in Nadia Davids’ Cissie at the Baxter Theatre and earlier this year she was seen in a BBC drama series, Silent Witness, as well as appearing in the feature film Themba. Her other film credits include, In my country, Cape of Good Hope and The Wooden Camera.

Sindiwe Magona, playwright

Sindiwe Magona is an author, poet, playwright, story-teller, actor and inspirational speaker. She was born in the Transkei and grew up on the Cape Flats in Cape Town. She obtained her matric through correspondence as a single parent - mother of three, working as a domestic worker with no fixed home. She graduated with a BA degree from the University of South Africa as well as a Master of Science Degree in Organisational Social Work from Columbia University.

In 2003 she relocated to Cape Town after retiring from the United Nations where, for the first ten years, she worked in the Anti-Apartheid Radio Programmes division for the Department of Public Information.

Some of her published works include two autobiographical books To My Children’s Children and Forced to Grow, two short stories collections Living, Loving and Lying Awake At Night and PUSH-PUSH! and other stories, two novels Mother to Mother and Beauty’s Gift and most recently a collection of poetry Please, Take Photographs. Umvuyeleli uBonke in Xhosa was published in 2005 by Sindiwe Magona and Gcina Mhlope.

Magona has also been published in the New York Times, the International Tribune, the Sunday Times, the Cape Times and the Cape Argus as well as in numerous magazines. Several of her short stories, essays and poems have been anthologised.

She last performed at the Baxter in 2007 in her own story I Promised Myself a Fabulous Middle Age, directed by Fatima Dike, as part of the South African season of the popular Play>Ground performed play-reading series. She has also created an Aids play entitled VUKANI which has been performed in colleges, churches and theatres in the United States.

Her awards include: 1993 honorary doctorate in Humane Letters from Hartwick College, Oneonta, New York; 1997 New York Foundation for the Arts-fellowship nonfiction categories; 1997 Xhosa Heroes Award from the Xhosa Forum, Western Cape; 1997 UNdimande Grand Prize winner - Bhala Writes short story contest; 1997 recognised as one of the 10 finalists for its Woman of the Year Award; 2000 Bronx recognizes its Own (BRIO) Award - fiction.

Besides writers’ conferences, Magona has given readings and addresses at numerous other international forums, including the United Nations, the Kennedy Centre, The Riverside Church, The Ford Foundation, Temple and Columbia Universities. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her work in women’s issues, the plight of children and the fight against apartheid and racism.