Three distinctive works for the theatre, by three dramatists associated with Johannesburg's Windybrow Centre, the first two are especially designed for production by schoolchildren and students - which is not to imply, in any way, that they can't grip and delight an adult audience as well. Mda's Love Letters addresses the value of pre-colonial culture, and explores the relative degrees of power young men and young women have in negotiating a love match.
Beads speak the language of love.
It's a tender and poignant play, whose energy comes from its humour, its visual appeal and from a drama of deception and misunderstanding that Mda develops in the second part of the piece. That kind of cultural reclamation is the business also of Chakela's Kweku Ananse , the second play in this collection. All she talks about is The Bold and the Beautiful . The old woman then introduces the children to a series of traditional tales, all of which turn on the exploits of the cunning, conniving spider, Ananse. What we find in Chakela's version is one culture being embraced and vitalised by another, as he offers a string of five Ananse adventures, adapted for a South African context.