| and What: Take Me to Town Writer and director: Thabiso T Rammala Musical director: Sibusizo Mkhize Movement direction: Ernest โGingerโ Baleni, Thabiso T Rammala, and Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi Cast: Moagi Kai, Nandi Zulu, Abongile Maurice Matyutyu, Zethu Dlomo – Mphahlele, Barileng Thato Malebye and Lunga Khuhlane Musicians: Lufezo Bovungane, Mandisa Yende and Katleho Mollo ย Producers: Blank Page Productions Pulane Mafatshe Lindelwa Tshabalala Shirely Mhlongo Thabiso T Rammala ย |
I saw Thabiso T Rammalaโs, mesmerising play, Take me to Town on Thursday night, June 20, 2025 in Cape Town on a cold and rainy night at Theatre Arts. It is extraordinary theatre – a post-pandemic, afro-futuristic, dystopian, love story, lament and call-out to cherish our world and planet, to embrace peace, not to succumb to Ai and monsters lurking in our midst.
We had been asked to wear black clothes by TAโs Caroline Calburn as Take Me to Town is immersive theatre. We sit around the stage โ a bunker โ a shaft of a mine. There is coal scattered. There is dust. We are given masks to wear as we enter into the Zikhali community, in a mine shaft. The masks trigger memories of the pandemic, which is referenced in the play and provide us with protection from the dust. We canโt breathe. The protagonists canโt breathe. They scavenge to live. It triggers the spectre of the legacy of mining and miners in South Africa, the lack of adequate protective gear and the exploitation of workers by capitalism. And yes in the play, we are faced with the fictional place of The Capital โ above the Zikhali community โ which is embedded by machines and Ai.
Take Me to Town is triggering on so many levels, densely knotted in multiple directions. In a blurb for the play, it is says it is โa fable about the complexities that humankind will have to endure should machines come to haunt usโ. It is a bundle of complexities. Yes, it is a fable, a satirical allegory, simmering in a landscape of dust and coal makes it stiflingly real and close. We are sitting in the dust and coal in a very dark place. But magical realism is woven to the beat of live music, movement, the thud of gumboot dance and voice โ which transcends the grief. Beautiful musical direction by Sibusizo Mkhize and movement direction by Rammala, Ernest โGingerโ Baleni and Sinenhlanhla Mgeyi. Rammalaโs magnificent writing, threaded with a satirical lens acts as a foil to the realism and theatrically lifts us out of the darkness.
Love and our relationships to family and community keep us going. The central protagonist Qhawe is torn between love and his responsibility to his community in the shafts. The community, the downtrodden has been shunted away. They are invisible to the privileged in The Capital. However it is not exactly Utopia in The Capital โ with the fall-out from climate change, depletion of natural resources war โ with Ai taking charge.
There has never been peace, we hear uttered in Take Me to Town. What are we wishing for โ to a better place than we have โ and then? What happens on the other side? โGo to The Capital to be a Robot?โ And then what? What is driving us? โAmbition is a powerful wordโ as we hear articulated in the play.
In a pop up interview, after the performance that I attended at Theatre Arts, Rammala reflected: โThe play is about the preservation of human life โฆโ We need to care more than what people aspire to in the Capital โฆWe are so digitalised that we are forgetting to live life โฆโ The play is his response – his frustrations – to everything that is going around us. Producer Pulane Mafatshe. Of Blank Page Productions (the company producing the play) added: โThe play addresses themes of morality versus mortality. It addresses climate change, food security, the increasing nature of A1โฆ Itโs a call to really go in seek refuge and fight for humanity โ before machines come for us.โ ย Pop-up interview here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19Pg6fjxrM/
Rammalaโs writing is exquisite. Its beauty transcends the darkness imaged in the play. Imagine if all we end up with are โdigital dreams and digital whiskyโ? Within all the rupture โ imagine if we can no longer sniff the breeze and experience the โgolden sunโ. Within the darkly imagined satirical imagery and commentary, is the plea: How do we navigate different worlds and nurture our human-ess? What currency do we use in our pursuit as we grasp for โgolden coinsโ โ real and imagined?
Take Me to Town is an epic piece of theatre โ a masterful synthesis of narrative text, biting satire, performance, voice, live music, movement and dance. The cast of nine manifest their characters so profoundly that it feels like they are real and not fictional.
This play ignites us and invites us to be alive here and now. Drill down beyond social-political ramifications, the past and horrible present and what of the future of a world without breeze and golden sun, where Robots have cancelled everything and made us all the same? Take Me to Town is exceptional and essential theatre โ an existential trip โ to jolt us out of the fugue that we are in this world which makes no sense. The 2025 of Take Me to Town national tour started at Theatre Arts โ June 17-22, 2025. To find out where it will be on next, follow Blank Pages on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DK-AmKDoSn4/ Take Me to Town was conceptualised in 2018 and first performed in 2024 in collaboration with POPArt at The Joburg Theatre and Thembisa’s TX Theatre.
โณ Featured image – Take Me Town, ovation after the performance on June 19, 2025 at Theatre Arts, Cape Town. The season was on June 17-22. Pic: Robyn Cohen/TheCapeRobyn.
