GABO LEGWALA
Originally produced by National Arts Festival Makhanda with support from Standard Bank South Africa in collaboration with Modise Sekgothe and Theatre Duo & Co.
Written and performed by Standard Bank - Arts Young Artist Award Recipient for Poetry Modise Sekgothe, directed by Mahlatsi Mokgonyana scored live by multi-instrumentalist Yogin Sullaphen and Vocalist Phumla Siyobi Gabo Legwala is a gripping meditation on memory, masculinity, and survival.
Journey with Modise and his childhood friends fatherless, restless, and ever stumbling as they fumble toward manhood without the map of a father’s example. This production is a stunning blend of music, poetry, and storytelling: At its core Gabo Legwala is a meditation on what it means to be a man when manhood is inherited in fragments from soccer fields, kung fu movies, playground fights, bullying, and boyish bravado.
"Sekgothe stares down and speaks directly to the effects and fall-out of navigating what’s left in the wake of deadbeat, dead, and departed fathers. The viewer is drawn in, invited to, not to look away. Visceral, sensual, explicit, and raw."– Aryn Guiney, Grocott’s Mail
Images by Mark Wessels/National Arts Festival and Yana Fay Dzedze