| What: mAnJE ! MaNJe (an epic) presented by Magnet Theatre When: November 6-16, 2024 Where: Magnet Theatre, Cnr Lower Main & St Michael’s Roads in Observatory Bookings: Webtickets Director: Mark Fleishman Musical composition: Neo Muyanga Visual projections: Marcus Neustetter Text: Jennie Reznek, Mwenya Kabwe Choreography: Ina Wichterich Set and costume design: Craig Leo Musical direction: Neo Muyanga and Lungiswa Plaatjies Musicians: Lungiswa Plaatjies and Brydon Bolton Singers: Zolina Ngejane, Luvo Rasemeni Lighting design: Themba Stewart and Mark Fleishman Cast: Jennie Reznek, Mwenya Kabwe with Azola Mkhabile, Buhle Stefane, Emmanuel Ntsamba, Karabo Hope Banda, Lusanda Soboyise, Melusi Molefe, Mihlali Bele, Sanele Phillip and Yvonne Msebenzi |
Magnet Theatre’s mAnJE ! MaNJe (an epic) wrapped up last night, November 16, 2024. I was away during the run and lucked in to be at the final performance of the play at Magnet’s theatre in Observatory. The season has received unanimous accolades and I add mine to the reviews. mAnJE ! MaNJe is an exceptional piece of theatre, vividly framed around the Cretan cycle of myths which sadly reverberate in our current times. The stories of Europa, King Minos, the Minotaur, Daedalus, Ariadne and Theseus become a bricolage of a lament to the malaise we find ourselves in the age of the machine and AI. Are we human or machine and what lessons can we learn from the Cretan gods? For the Greeks, the message was don’t mess with the gods. But enough has never been enough for us humans, and great directing by Mark Fleishman puts this front and centre in this epic.
mAnJE ! MaNJe is an epic production – with sensational choral singing, opera, dance, stunning physical theatre and performance, original music, live music accompaniment and stunning animated drawings which are projected onto screens. Magnet has taken a black-box/shoe-box theatre and transformed the space with a multi-volume set – with the fabrication of stairs and a mezzanine. Craig Leo’s set is a masterpiece. The Minotaur is a magnificent effigy. Lighting design by Fleishman and Themba Stewart heightens its epic fabulousness and absurdity – of being everything, everywhere, all at once. mAnJE ! MaNJe is a viscerally immersive visual and aural epic.
Veteran theatre makers Jennie Reznek and Mwenya Kabwe work brilliantly with the young cast to conjure up vivid images. Reznek struts around gleefully as the alpha Daedalus- the narcissistic architect and engineer who wants more and more. I see another best actor nomination for Reznek as manic Daedalus, the seductive mega Influencer/Podcaster of mAnJE ! MaNJe.
The stories are complicated. If Magnet stages this astonishing production again, it will help to read the “audience guide to the headlines of the Cretan Myth Cycle” in the programme to get the gist of the narrative.
mAnJE ! MaNJe is a mind blowing production. I was in awe watching. Human nature has not changed. We are so easily seduced in the now-now.
✳ Featured image: Sanele Philip, Yvonne Msebenzi and Lusanda Soboyise in mAnJE ! MaNJe (an epic). Photo: Mark Wessels. Supplied.
