THE Basotho nation will celebrate 200 years of existence in 2024.
As a storyteller and a proud Mosotho, Napo Masheane has honoured her culture through a musical called Thaba Bosiu.
The multi-award-winning playwright, creative producer, artistic director, festival curator, poet, cultural activist, translator and acclaimed performer told Daily Sun that her plays choose her.
“Often, my compositions start with mountable questions. For Thaba-Bosiu, these questions were: what if bo-nkgono-nkgono re-birth themselves as this mountain we can climb, see, hear, touch, and feel? Could it be that through dipina, diboko, dithoko, difela le ditshomo bo-nkgono-nkgono re-birth and reincarnate as Thaba Bosiu (the mountain-of-the-night) to display a rainbow of diverse cultures and traditions that are a cross between the existence, experience, screams and dreams of Morena Moshoeshoe (I) the founder of Batho-Ba-Sootho,” she said.
She said a year ago, she left parts of her dreams and life in Joburg to take a new position as an artistic director.
“This was after I had a hard knock and knot of an amazing festivai. I curated that left me broke and broken. That experience saw me indented to many artists after two major sponsors pulled a rag under my feet last minute,” she said.
Napo said she had never experienced failure like that.
“Something that made me lose friends/colleagues and also made me question a lot about myself and my work. I struggled with mental illness and emotional anxiety, but then Modimo le Badimo had another plan (it seemed). An opportunity was given to me to be kind to myself, to shed off being perfect and having all the answers,” she said.
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Napo said a year later, against all odds, she started realising her dreams again.
“I started to listen and dance to my favourite music again. I spent more time alone, cooking, playing and reading again. Amid all the noise, I learnt to value life and found laughter through tears again. More so, I started to write and write again. Thus, Thaba Bosiu The Musical was born,” she said.
Napo said her work often speaks for itself.
“I can't determine what aspirants or audiences can or should take from it. Mine is to spit lines as a playwright and breathe life into those lines on stage as a director. Others must find or question pieces that resonate with them. But one thing I know is that anyone who walks into the theatre to watch or experience my work never leaves the space as the same person,” she said.
She said Thaba Bosiu The Musical is on at Pacofs, Sand Du Plessis Theatre, until Thursday, 5 October.
