Picture of Qondiswa James: provided
Winners for the 2022 Fleur du Cap Awards were announced in 19 categories this year.
Naomi Meyer interviewed some of the winners of the awards.
Below is an interview with Qondiswa James.
Qondiswa, congratulations on your Fleur du Cap Award for Best South African Script for A howl in Makhanda. What was your inspiration for the script?
In 2010, I was expelled from DSG in Makhanda, and almost immediately afterwards started developing a script as a way to reflect on and analyse what had happened. I directed the first draft of the play, then called The insomniacs, as a grade 12 independent project at my (new) school, Epworth. In 2019, Jennie Reznek gave me the opportunity to develop the work at Magnet Theatre with her guidance, and linked me up with Amy Jephta, who gave me some notes.
The past two years were not kind to theatre. When and where could people see your play during these times?
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I moved online, like everyone else!
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I moved online, like everyone else! There’re now four full-length plays that I have on video with unlisted links, in case any festivals or institutions want to pick up the work. Howl is one such work; we filmed it experimentally at 44 on Long, and it was part of the curated programme at the Virtual National Arts Festival 2020. But honestly, for theatre work, I’m still one of those who believe you must just come to the theatre. So, I was trying out new work at Theatre Arts to very limited audiences from September 2020, thanks to Caroline Calburn’s willingness to try and see what we could make of live theatre in that time, and I just continued to do that.
What does an award like this one mean to you in times like these?
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I’m grateful to be celebrated by my community and understand that this might contribute to the growth of my platform, which ultimately helps me pay rent and buy bread.
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I’m not sure. I’m grateful to be celebrated by my community and understand that this might contribute to the growth of my platform, which ultimately helps me pay rent and buy bread. But I’m really hoping it means that other production houses and festivals nationally (ie, Artscape, Baxter, Market, State, PE Opera House, KKNK, Playhouse, etc) will be more likely/willing to take a chance on me. I’m quite happy to continue moving in the fringe, but it might be cool also to diversify.
Do you think that the arts are still relevant during pandemic times? Why keep on creating theatre?
Funny, this question, after Cyril announces the end of the state of disaster – but that’s not true, is it? We have been in a pandemic and continue to be; it is an orgy of black death at the margins.
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How can our work not be relevant? All our work, and here not just artists, is part of the fabric of our society, so in fact our work is imperative at all times.
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I won’t respond about theatre specifically, but “art” more broadly. I’ve started to settle in the understanding that a very large reason apartheid fell is because of cultural interventions which helped share information, mobilise people (even to take up arms!), provide space for reflection and consolidate ideas. How can our work not be relevant? All our work, and here not just artists, is part of the fabric of our society, so in fact our work is imperative at all times. I’m more interested in how “art practice” is harnessed every day as a tool of survival, that there is always a creative improvisation to the hustle. Why not keep creating?
Also read:
Fleur du Cap Awards 2022: an interview with Anna-Mart van der Merwe