Mpumi Mthombeni in Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater (photo: Val Adamson)
Empatheatre’s electrifying and highly acclaimed Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater a one-woman show brought to life by Mpume Mthombeni and theatre-maker Neil Coppen, comes to the Baxter Flipside from 9 to 19 April 2025, at 19:30 with matinees at 14:00.
Winner of four Naledi Theatre Awards for Best Production, Best Actor in a solo performance, Best Director and Best lighting design the production was nominated for four more awards. At the 2024 Woordtrofees awards it won Best New South African text, Best Solo Performance for Mpume Mthombeni and Best Technical Achievement for Tina Le Roux. It was selected as the Noorderzon Critics Choice at the 2023 Noordezon Festival of Performing Arts in the Netherlands. The play text has been published by Wits university press.
Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner Neil Coppen, in collaboration with Mthombeni, have written he script which is based on a range of testimonials shared them and Urban Futures Centre (UFC) during their Empatheatre research processes.
Set in a womens’ hostel in downtown Durban, 60-something year old Zenzile Maseko (performed by Mthombeni), is a grandmother partially disabled and declared dead by the Home Affairs’ decrepit system. It is within the confines of this cramped room that Zenzile reckons with Nkulunkulu (God), recalling the unbelievable series of events that have unfolded across her lifetime. It is soon revealed that she operated as one of the IFP’s most feared assassins (nicknamed Impundulu/The Lightning Bird) in the build-up to the 1994 South African elections.
It’s a past Zenzile has spent most of her adult life trying to erase, praying nightly to Nkulunkulu and begging him to cleanse her of her past sins. However, when Home Affairs mistakenly declare her dead and are unable to reverse the error on their system, she finds herself cast into the middle of a Kafkaesque nightmare, forced to reawaken the vengeful spirit of Impundulu/The Lightning Bird, to secure her survival.
Mthombeni sets the stage ablaze in a breathtaking tour-de-force performance that sees her shifting between the feared IFP assassin Impundulu and the reborn Gogo, longing to return to the house she’s building in her childhood village, iPharadise.
Zenzile’s devastating and often hilarious recollections propel the audience back and forth through time, traversing the shifting landscapes of KwaZulu-Natal and while charting critical events in the province's post-1994 trajectory through to its present-day floods and insurrections. While the story offers an insightful look at the eddying cycles of violence and revenge that play out across generations, it is most of all a story about redemption, regeneration and reinvention.
Since its premiere at the 2022 National Arts Festival, the production has toured throughout South Africa and Europe to sold-out houses and rave reviews with performances at the National Arts Festival, Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre (Durban), The Market Theatre (Joburg), Hilton Arts Festival (KZN), Noordezon Festival of Performing Arts (Groningen Netherlands), The Kampnagel International Summer Festival (Hamburg,Germany) and La Bâtie - Festival de Genève (Switzerland). It has just returned from a season at the Schlachthaus Theatre in Berne, Switzerland.
Local and international media have raved, with The Cape Robyn declaring, “Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater is an achingly beautiful theatre piece. Mthombeni delivers a performance which is transcendent” and Stellenbosch Media Forum Review equally encouraging, “ a soul stirring masterpiece of storytelling, tackling difficult subjects with grace, humour and nuance. It is a profound, thought-provoking work that will leave you reflecting long after the curtain falls.”
Fabien Imhof, Geneva Theatre critic described it this, “One can only be impressed by the searing performance actress Mpume Mthombeni delivers. She carries this one hour and forty-minute monologue with exceptional power … A piece that is simply breathtaking”
Le Temps Newspaper in Geneva, Switzerland said, “… a resounding standing ovation … to salute the magnificent performance by Mpume Mthombeni ... Zenzile is a force of nature and director Neil Coppen reveals that the real force lives in the strong women whose testimonials have shaped the creation of play and who have faced many tempests across their lives. -
Mthombeni, Coppen alongside Dylan McGarry, are the co-founders of Empatheatre who’s focus is on forging creative responses to complex social concerns and historical events. The company was awarded the prestigious 2022 Bertha Artivism Award for their theatre and social justice work as well as the 2023 Fleur Du Cap award for innovation in South African Theatre. In 2024 Empatheatre was granted the Ibsen scope award for their up-and-coming isiZulu adaptation of Ibsen’s Enemy of the People. Their work has toured to Egypt, Rome, New York, Barcelona, Germany, Norway and Switzerland.
Lighting design is by Tina Le Roux, sound design by Tristan Horton, set design by Greg King and set dressing by Dylan McGarry, Neil Coppen and Wendy Henstock. There is an age restriction of 14 years.
Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater runs at the Baxter Flipside from 9 to 19 April 2025, at 19:30 with matinees at 14:00 and booking is through Webtickets online or at Pick n Pay stores. For schools or block bookings of 10 or more contact Carmen Kearns on 021 680 3993 or email carmen.kearns@uct.ac.za or Mark Dobson of 021 680 18 or email mark.dobson@uct.ac.za.