Magnet Theatre –mixing physical and spiritual

A Cape Town based physical theatre company explores local cultures and histories, national and personal mythologies.

There's a cricket chirping as I enter the cavernous space. Then faceless voices breathing hard; rasping. I'm not in a national hospital or a penitentiary. I'm at the theatre. And this time, it's real.

Physical theatre is a form of entertainment and storytelling that prioritises the use of performers' bodies, using voice, dance, mime and puppetry. Have you ever seen six people piled into huge, white, stretchy sock?   Or been asked what the heroine should do next? That's typical of physical theatre. This approach to entertainment and education is devised in process, is interdisciplinary and audience-interactive. It seems like a suitable microphone for South Africa's many talents and topics of debate.

Cape Town based Magnet Theatre is well placed for forging communications and compassion into the future, most especially because it understands that we can't do so without first facing the bulls and demons of the past. Its analysis and expression of the spiritual and psychological (South) African subconscious is long standing and eloquent.

Relevant theatre telling real stories

Far from being a highfaluting affair that drives the uninitiated away, Magnet Theatre vivid shows reach a wide public of many means and mindsets, from educated, inner city audiences to keen learners in Khayelitsha. Its multi-lingual productions enjoy a wide geographical and cultural scope, with touring shows like " Every Year, Everyday, I am Walking " showing globally at festivals, in villages, and in-between. The practitioners take care to collaborate with people whose nature and professionalism matches theirs, and have repeatedly worked with dance company, Jazzart and composer Neo Muyanga.  Combining artistic excellence and imagination, academics and expression, they offer a comprehensive entertainment experience 'in the round', one that is also inside out and upside down.

I first came across the company watching "Onnest'bo" outdoors on the steps of the Planetarium years ago.  It was a touching, hysterically funny yet penetrative account of a residential area on the Cape Town city skirts once home to an integrated community.  Caught in the crossroads between human interests and political regimes, Bokaap was razed to the ground by the Apartheid government, its people disingenuously displaced. The land, like the sociological wound it incurred, still stands open today. Watching the show, I was entertained and intrigued, I cried and laughed, i felt closer to Cape Town, and its peoples. The use of human story to illustrate and investigate a haunting history and its greater socio-political repercussions seemed a great way to bring issues (and resolutions) to life. It still does today.

Catching up to contemporary  - Magnet Theatre narrative 2.0

To get a 'street view' on South Africa two thousand and ten, Magnet Theatre is currently making a conscious shift from historical material to the present. This is prompted by Mark Fleishman, Magnet's director and managing trustee and head of the Drama Department at UCT (University Of Cape Town).  Magnet has a repertoire of history plays "an exploration into ‘the archive’, and how it speaks to the actual present, comments Jennie Reznek, (the other Magnet director and trustee).  "Mark is busy researching [a new production] 'Now', which is an attempt to understand living in Cape Town in the present, its relationships, and how people negotiate the city space in the present moment.  Jennie illustrates.  "It's asking ‘can you be a wayfarer in the city now?’ what happens if you wander in your city?"

Enabling graduate learners to study further

Besides wondering about the city, Magnet is also actively investing in it. After working with Khayelitsha community projects for seven years, and facilitating the family-first university entrance of 9 students, Magnet decided to run a full time training project. Every two years, ten high school graduates receive a bursary to cover food and transport, and from 9-5 they take skills classes in voice, movement dance, singing and text, physical theatre, characterisation, community theatre, production and training through performance and more. The Training programme deals with levels of confidence and is an effective bridge between school and tertiary education. Learners graduate capable of studying at a tertiary level as well as working.

While the only sure thing is that the future is never certain, the company stays on its toes, on stage and back stage, literally and figuratively. "What drives Magnet is that there’s always a level of research. We are not deciding that we know, and using the formula again. We’re always asking, ‘what is theatre?’ This informs the stories."

As a creator of engaging entertainment, Magnet helps audiences face shared changes and challenges, and encourages them towards a more conscious coexistence with neighbours whose viewpoints and lifestyles may differ to theirs. Its contributed cannot be counted, but it can be applauded and danced to. 

By Jess Henson

Magnet Theatre moves around, but some of them stay put. Read our selection of Cape Town Theatres. If you feel like a drink before or after a show, try browsing through our listing of bars in Cape Town. If Magnet Theatre inspires you to find out more about South African stories, you may enjoy a hands-on township tour.