South African Star’s Bermuda Show
South African superstar Thembi Mtshali-Jones says her upcoming Bermuda Festival encore performance in a one-woman show about about the lingering emotional trauma caused by a murder in that country has universal application.
The actress and singer told “The Sowetan” today [Jan. 9] that after appearing in “Mother To Mother” at this month’s Bermuda Festival For The Perfoming Arts, she is taking the show on a North American tour.
“I will be taking my show to Bermuda, on the East Coast of the United States, at the end of the month,” she said. “The show has been in demand since last year when it was invited to the National Black Theatre Festival in North Carolina.”
A fixture in South African television, theatre and movies for more than 40 years, Ms Mtshali-Jones also performed as a backing singer for the late South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba.
“Mother To Mother” brings together three powerhouse women of the arts in South Africa: writer, Sindiwe Magona; director, Janice Honeyman; and actress, Thembi Mtshali-Jones.
The play — being staged at City Hall on Tuesday, 31 January 8pm — is loosely based on the murder of young American Fullbright scholar Amy Biehl in Cape Town’s Gugulethu township and recounts the events following the senseless killing.
It is staged as a fictional personal testimony from one mother to another in which Thembi Mtshali- Jones, as the mother of one of the four youths accused of the murder, tries to make sense of the events by recounting them in an imaginary communication with Amy’s mother.
Critics have said she delivers a tour de force performance coloured wih dignity, sensitivity and humour.
Ms. Mtshali-Jones last appeared at the Bermuda Festival in the highly acclaimed performance of “A Woman In Waiting.”
Read More About
Category: All, Entertainment
