Written by Mike van Graan
Directed by Lara Bye
Artscape Arena, 24 April 2013 – 11 May 2013
Grahamstown National Arts Festival, 27 June 2013 – 4 July 2013
Mike van Graan’s Rainbow Scars is a brave and insightful tour de force that will leave its audience reeling. Following the story of a South African family, the drama introduces Ellen, a 53-year old white woman who, three years after the end of apartheid, adopted her black domestic worker’s three-year old daughter, Lindiwe. Lindiwe becomes Lindi Robinson and is now 17 years old and has her first interaction with her biological family in the form of an encounter with her older cousin, Sicelo, who has recently been released from prison where he served eight years for a crime he did not commit. Despite a “new” country boasting affirmative action and BEE (Black Economic Empowerment), Sicelo remains jobless and without any opportunities. He lives with his family in a small shack in a township. Lindi, on the other hand, lives in a house that we are told has four bedrooms and three bathrooms. She has a laptop, an iPod, overseas holidays and the choice to learn French at school. She is unable to speak Xhosa, her mother tongue. She recognizes nothing of herself in Sicelo and the life he lives and tells him, “Go back to the jail where you belong.” Yet, at the same time, she recalls that her adoptive sister never played with her and her adoptive father would pet her as he might pet a dog. Is she simply a project? A trophy to them?
With South Africa nearing its twentieth year of democracy, it is still facing issues of race, inequality and identity. Politicians, former Struggle veterans, have lined their own pockets, forgetting their impoverished “brothers”, leaving them to rot as they grow fat. As Sicelo says towards the end of the play, “For some of us the struggle continues.” In an era where South Africa has become the protest capital of the world, where the forgotten poor are marching against the amenities and opportunities being denied them, this play is aptly exploring what it is to help, to be the helped and who is left behind.
A daring and true play, Mike van Graan’s Rainbow Scars is a play that should not be missed; in particular Mbulelo Grootboom’s performance (in the role of Sicelo) is terrifyingly realistic.
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.artscape.co.za
http://www.artscape.co.za/show/rainbow-scars/656
