The Cry Of Winnie Mandela
An end to waiting for answers to impossible questions ... maybe
If you are one of so many who ask how Winnie could have betrayed Nelson and the nation, The Cry Of Winnie Mandela at Baxter Flipside might just give you some answers. Even if you have always known that the long lamented ‘Mother of the Nation’ deserves our sympathy, this compelling play will probably fill some gaps.
To everyone, it will likely present a new level of discomfort to sit with, not just about Winnie, but about fractured relationships and broken families in a time of removed people and dislocated morals. The remains of those days that we live with now. The price of a speedy, imposed reconciliation. That is why there is another view of who betrayed whom.
Based on the novel by Professor Njabulo S. Ndebele, The Cry of Winnie Mandela was adapted by Alex Burger and is directed by MoMo Matsunyane, current Standard Bank Young Artist Winner for Theatre.
Five women own the stage and take possession of our hearts on the night. Thembisa Mdoda-Nxumalo is outstanding as Winnie. Rami Chuene, Ayanda Sibisi, Siyasanga Papu and Pulane Rampoana each inhabit their characters to devastating effect. They never miss a beat, pulling at our heart strings, making us laugh, smile, cry, laugh, ache.
The concept of Winnie in her later years, the ‘terror of Soweto’ who South Africans thought we knew, as the child of Major Theuns Swanepoel, her torturer, really hits home.
The play is quite long and winding and the theatre gets hot and stuffy at times, but I would do it all again to hear Mdoda-Nxumalo’s Winnie giving a powerful, heartfelt soliloquy that answers so many questions, starting with: Why did you do it, Winnie?
These are the questions we have heard asked all these years since we saw the very public unravelling of what we wanted to be the greatest of all romances.
The preludes to Winnie’s arrival on stage are four stories, each one more gripping and heartbreaking than the one before. They are stories that we know, too, of women left waiting for their men, and torn apart by it. The men are gone to mines, into exile, overseas on a scholarship, or just down the road into someone else’s bed.
Always there is a dedicated woman at home, usually with children, too, waiting, believing and hoping. Often they are victims of vicious rumour as they fight their bitter loneliness and anguish in a time when life was brutish for black families in the townships and the villages, never mind for single mothers. Still, they burned the candle and waited.
Very powerful performances by Chuene, Sibisi, Papu and Rampoana. Poor old Les Made as the professor really didn’t stand a chance with me. Even if the play is based on Prof Ndebele’s novel and we are grateful to him for his always thoughtful, intelligent and sensitive work, having a man on stage helping the ladies to tie the narrative (about the absence of men) together jarred a little. But maybe it is just me that sometimes gets tired of being a Woman in a Man’s World.
This powerful play will make you think hard and feel deeply. It might also make you revisit your ideas about our recent history.
The Cry of Winnie Mandela runs in the Baxter Flipside until 15 February 2025, after a sold-out run at the Market Theatre. Good news for the slackers in Jozi who missed it: the production transfers back to the Market for a return season from 26 February to 23 March 2025. Booking through Webtickets or at Pick n Pay stores.
Read my latest newsletter: Plenty of loveliness and so much connection, even in this divisive time Feb 3-9