Photography & Videography: Evaan Jason Ferreira
Poster Design: Evaan Jason Ferreira
Photographed By: Evaan Jason Ferreira
Phinda Ubuyele debuted at 2022 National Arts Festival Fringe Programme. The production is a two-hander that follows the story of siblings who have returned to their childhood home in the aftermath of their parents’ death. The two siblings are engaged in recounting their childhood experiences to draw deeper understandings of who they are in their adulthood. They spent their childhood under the surveillance of an abusive father and an ailing mother. In their adulthood, they are each other’s refuge as they begin to remember the events of their past to uncover the hidden narratives of their own lives. The two siblings must examine the inherited traumas of their past which often causes them to revert to earlier stages of their development as a defence mechanism. The production deals with generational trauma, regression, and survivor’s guilt. The complicated relationship with time and memory is juxtaposed with the guilt each child/adult carries about their role in the demise of their family unit.
Siphosethu Balakisi
Xolela Kenene
What makes or breaks a home? And how can the act of remembering be a means of healing rather than a form of bondage? In Phinda Ubuyele, two siblings attempt to make sense of their pasts, navigating a murky landscape of trauma and distorted memory, passed down through generations. Directed by Thembela Madliki, the play is performed by Siphosethu Balakisi and Xolela Kenene who play Thando and her older brother Luntu, respectively. While trauma and memory are the overt themes charging the work, there is also the abstract and corporeal – notions of tenderness and violence held and harboured on a cellular level. Back in their childhood home following the death of their parents, they engage the way siblings do, playing and bickering.
Dave Mann The Critter