Can Themba's Legacy Lives On In The House Of Truth at The Market Theatre

Opened as the first production on The Market Theatre 2017 programme, The House of Truth has already distinguished itself as the South African contemporary classical theatre piece. Written by SiphiwoMahala, based on one of the towering figures of black South African black writers and journos of the 50’s, Can Themba. The play is directed by Vanessa Cooke and performed by veteran actor, SelloMaakekaNcube. This play opened with a bang for its media opening night with high profile politicians and public figures filling the Barney Simon Theatre to the brim.

The House of Truth, a title from one of Can Themba’s short stories, is a collection of Themba’s life and work. It stages the most significant and mundane, contrast of beauty and ugliness, black and white, curl of oppression and freedom, monochrome of religion and politics. In this play, SiphiwoMahala navigates Can Themba’s world with dashes of absurdity and nostalgia. Mahala doesn’t only juxtaposes the past with the present but adorn us the relevance of the oppressive years as he nudges us into the times of a man known to be  ‘D’Orsay Can Themba.

Kofifi sounds or music welcomes you as you find yourself a seat in the auditorium. Table with office items such a typewriter, lantern-light graces the table unlit, books-like encyclopaedias planted all over the table with pile of what looks like a heap of envelopes piled up. Not far from the table with an empty chair; arrogantly stands a coat-hanger with a fedora hat budding off from one twig. Behind this take, dashiki-like fabric hung lazily from the top. Another stack of books are at the feet of the table and one is cajoled into house of truth by virtue of the setting. 

Precipitously, Can Themba, played by SelloMaakekaNcube, walks onto stage, picking up a matches box to light the lantern before pulling a chair to seat. He punctuates his introduction by warning the audience to not prefix his name with ‘Mr.” for he believes that great people like Shakespeare are never ‘mistered’ but are called just by their names without trouble of coining titles. “Have you ever heard of Mr. Jesus, or Mr. Shakespeare?” asks kaNcube jokingly. One may have not heard Themba’s voice, but the versatility of the seasoned actor, kaNcube brings to the fore a sparkling persona of Themba, the conversationalist, with razor-sharp wordplay. 

He then take us in his confidence on what his dream is, a dream of building something concrete where his name will never be erased from history of South Africa. That dream is the empire he sought to build around the concept of The House of Truth where untraditional truths and unskimmed debates are enjoyed for what they are. The House of Truth as described by Stan Motjuwadi, a former student and later colleague to Themba, “The place perhaps was Can’s way of cocking a snook at snobbery, officialdom and anything that smacked of the formal” it is what South Africa needs most in the post-apartheid where there is the orotundity of decolonising the academic intuitions. The play from onset, inspires hope for change.

For this one man autobiographic theatre piece, MaakekaNcube invites us into Themba’s multi-coloured and buoyant life lived, life of a writer by incarnation. He starts the narrative with a friend of Can Themba called Stompie. Stompie has saved Can from the many knives of the tsotsis of Sophiatown. Portrayal of Stompie is very hilarious, for he is been described as ‘shortie’ and a distributor of wealth in a form of stealing from the whites and industrials. 

There is the unperturbed rhythms of genuineness in the life lived by Themba, it is strikingly visible when he is engaged in politics. KaNcube, as a brilliant storyteller, narrates colourfully such engagements. We see him burrowing characters and wits of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu when they visited Themba’s house. “Can Themba we’d like to talk to you,” said Mandela. From the play it seems that both Mandela and Sisulu were authoritarians for it emerged in their command that ‘the concluded that they knew what a black man thinks’. Themba contested against this idea stating that his pen is also a weapon he would use to fight oppressive injustices of apartheid system. It seems their exercise of wooing him into politics was fruitless, perhaps this could be on the basis of arrogant approach wheedled at him. 

The House of Truth, under the directorship of Vanessa Cooke, an iconic theatre director who co-founded Market Theatre, she is well positioned in directing this powerful autobiographical piece that is so historic in its narrative and potent in reflection of where we are and where we have come from as a country. The reflections or rather recollections made by SiphiwoMahala when he penned this work from studying the life and work of Can Themba, it becomes clear that not much has changed with the advent of democracy.

Some of the challenges Themba and people his generation faced remain much alive. Say for an example, Themba had academic qualifications, despite holding a degree from Fort Hare University that the then Transvaal Education Department did not recognise and further made it difficult to earn a decent salary befitting his qualifications. He had to finally quit teaching only to be confronted with the same contest of salary clashes in the media industry when he took the position assistant editorship at the newspaper company. The era of apartheid, same as democratic dispensation, emerges with all its limitations, simple economy that favours individual on the basis of color or race. It is a known fact as released by The Stats SA that white families earn six times more than what black families earn. On average black family’s annual income is R60,000 whereas a white family earns an annual income of R360,000. 

Mahala’s argument in this play it may be that, yes we are living in a democratic country which still burrowed clothes from the previous apartheid government and is hard to burrow back the attire, because not much has changed, there remains structural dominance of apartheid laws that holds back transformation and delays equality in the society. In Bloke Modisane’s words, quoting Can Themba he said; “I have long stopped arguing the injustice, the vindictiveness, the strong-arm authority of which prostrate Sophiatown is a loud symbol,” – we can see why Themba established The House of Truth where truthful debates and intellectual engagement are welcomed irrespective of race of social class.  

The House Of Truth premiered at the National Arts Festival and opened at The Market Theatre on the 10^th January and will run till the 29^th January 2017. This work is part of the celebration of two writers of the 1950’s that Market Theatre will celebrate this year. Another writer is Es’kiaMphahlele who shared the DRUM offices with Can Themba. Watch out for more works on these giants.

Khehla Chepape Makgato is a Johannesburg-based independent artist and arts writer, regularly contributing articles to ART AFRICA and The Journalist. He works at Assemblage Studios and is the founder of Samanthole Creative Projects & Workshop, a community-based art organisation focusing on arts and literacy youth programmes. Chepape is the ImpACT Award WINNER for Visual Arts 2016 from the Arts and Culture Trust of South Africa and MAPUNGUBWE VISUAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR 2016.