I watched ‘Tree’ at the Young Vic this month. It’s so upbeat and looks across contemporary South Africa. The main character, “Kaleo” is played by Alfred Enoch (How To Get Away With Murder). The play is a concept by Idris Elba, directed and co written by Kwame Kwei Armah.
Kaleo’s story is vibrant, both in story and in movement. The play broke down into two sides. He is a young man in a small region of the UK. Over a night of high spirits, he wakes to anxiety. Following the death of his mother, he takes a sojourn in South Africa. Beforehand, he tries to amend connection with an old flame before his trip “home”.
The sequences of his journey are both pulsating and soothing. Visions surrounding him appear the workings of his mind, also that of the supernatural. Whilst awake or in dream, the vivid graphics on stage above and around are eye catching. Where Kaleo treads to restore his lost connection with his father, His ancestral bonds hold him bewitched. Kaleo’s angst about crossing ‘the other side’ to freedom sends him to search out his Afrikaans relative. From this point of the play, characters are all of South African origin. There comes a suggestion that the land he walks bares a deeper resonance to his ancestral past. He is helped by Patrice’s Naiambana’s character, Gweki, a man who had insight into the connections to Kaleo between his grandmother’s possession and fathers labour.
For the betterment of his family, and his mind, Kaleo must be brought to the true story lived before him. Elzebe, his grandmother’s tough love loosens with shifts in her grandson’s existence. Her daughter has died. They both discover Kaleo has a paternal sister, Ofentse (Joan Iyiola). the story takes shape around these unfamiliar relatives. His sister tries to grasp what is becoming of her nation and her father’s legacy. The values of the South African youth are important in the play. Cries and posters surrounded us. I held up and carried a poster: ‘To h_l with Afrikaans!’ I stood amidst dancers and speakers. Many were representing the forceful advancing of black activists, far removed from settlement. Through lenses of Ofentse, land tells of wealth, and destiny. Initially this proves hard for Kaelo to reason with.
His ties to this land reach into a painful past. The past conflict over their father’s nation is played. The seances conjured up by Kaelo’s ancestral ghosts evoke him to grasp what his sister can’t see. He surges through his fears, these familial connections are what actually define him. After an unravelling of Kaelo’s affections, he take firm focus of the prize, the land his father left behind. With peaceable agreement with his sister, his family name is redeemed. Connecting to his mother’s will, a tree is built, and regarded as a memorial.I saw tears at the end, it felt like a homecoming!
Edited below, a conversation with “Tee” and myself on Tree, character development, thoughts on our history and typical traits of the black protagonist. Positive thinking!
Amazing! -there’s so many.. It felt like the actor was in awe- it felt like he finally knew himself.
Discovery of his identity, is the key- He fulfilled his mission! He stood there- Everything made sense. His father was one of the most important themes to why he did what he did, and I love just how they married that together with culture- and..even dance and…-there’s so many things that were even supported by real, factual things. All the violence that happened in South Africa.I love how they brought the..-yeah exactly. Current stuff and the culture. Just to see even the dynamic with [Elzebe] saying ‘oh yeah, they work for us.’ You could just tell the prejudice that had been gone on, comparing black to white South Africans. Even the lady…one guy [Gweki] says, ‘that’s all we talk about’. Black versus white, like where have you been? That’s all we talk about.So it’s just amazing.
What’s interesting as well. Normally it’s blacks are for all blacks, but just to see the dynamic when [Ofentse] was like ‘F* you and Mandela!’. It’s a good concept. Kaleo was like, ‘why would you go and say those things! the whole world loves him.’ Like there’s literally civil tensions that are there and obviously highlighted in this play. They talk of the whites, and the Bantu and the Koi. It makes me aware as well that with the tribes, they have their own own land. But there have been other blacks that have been claiming, um, its difficult. But ‘Tree’ was packed in a very nice digestible-and it was fun..one hour thirty minutes.
It’s the humour, the s* they were talking about that made me-it was funny!- lau(gh)- like “I knew you were South African!” -*accent* “Yes, he said that he wants to celebrate!”The journey…taking us through the journey, like every time he was in transit or in sleep. You know like in ‘Black Panther’, how they would take [T’Challa] into the spiritual world or realm, whatever, and it’s just like, I love how they weren’t shying away from that. With culture most of it is spiritual, you know we relate so much to our ancestors, well certain diaspora relate a lot to their ancestors you know I’m glad-it’s very well invested- yeah in their roots. Especially you know what, there is West African culture that is really like its really embedded in them. But its always the Zulu that I hear of- yes. Whenever I see a play, its the south African or Zimbabwean- it’s that ancestral- it’s deep- land, and I feel like it’s deep but they didn’t shy away from that. Like he went into the spiritual almost like four times-yeah dreams- the sounds, chants everything.
Later in conversation:
Somewhat scared like “oh, this is juju” but *this* is what our ancestors used to do- before they even- this is what, before even Christianity, because obviously, well, people say that white people brought Christianity to us [society]…I’m iffy but I imagine, that before that it was our ancestral ties or the things we used to do that made us. One thing I love about even like, the message that, the hope that the gospel was to bring in Africa. It was to give- yeah- to show love. It’s not enough to just know [verses] and to cite it, like in the play, where Grandma was like, she speaks one particular part of scripture, but it was like, she regurgitates it. People need to see you showing the love of Christ, the One you follow. (Aspect change) It’s one of things where, you have look at these people with mercy, like they hold on to where they see value and their identity in. If you show and teach them that there is a love that is, no man can show that. I think that where we can move on- yeah- and move past things where we’ve wronged each other and so.
We segued to look for lunch that day.
It’s playing till Saturday 24th August At Young Vic Theatre. Inspiring and reaching. If you like theatre and dance combined, go. If you want to get immersed into it, book standing. Take family or a friend!
Lami.
@lamisscoco