{"id":3867,"date":"2020-05-11T19:54:26","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T18:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=3867"},"modified":"2020-06-18T22:27:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T21:27:21","slug":"playwright-profile-billy-langa-the-dream-writer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=3867","title":{"rendered":"Playwright profile: Billy Langa the dream writer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Billy Langa in Tswalo. Image supplied.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seemingly\nmundane questions can find interesting answers. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nis the impulse\nfor your writing?\nIs it just something you do? When did you start – have you been\nwriting since early on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy\nLanga replies the impulse to write sparks from \u201cthe idea of\npoetry\u201d. Pauses, says: \u201cbut before then I grew up where at home\nwe\u2019d wake up in the morning and share dreams with my grand dad. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\nwould insist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Recalling\ndreams got \u201cto a point we started recording them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home was in Hammanskraal, and \u201cwe\u201d were his sister, elder by two years, and his two brothers, younger by eight and nine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their\ngrandfather started drawing the dreams out of them when Billy was\naround 11, and Billy started trying to capture them in words when he\nwas about 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn\nthe unrealistic way they come in, one realised there\u2019s a world that\nexists here that needs to be investigated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\ndoing so, he realised \u201chow things bend in this world\u201d, and that\nwriting, as part of this world, can also bend. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An\ninterest in poetry, then, as a form to depict what is unreal but\nnonetheless happens. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs\na writer you set the rules. You can put down things that don\u2019t\nexist and you can make it exist.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which\nmakes perfect sense when you read his highly successful performance\npoem, Tswalo<\/em>. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nondumiso\nMsimanga, in the foreword to the text, calls it \u201can epic poem\nplaying in the space of birth and rebirth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\nis epic in the tradition of the ancients, foretelling and forewarning\nus of the potential tragedies in our own narratives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nalso performs it. Performs the word. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA tattered blanket the only prop, his voice becomes the body, his body becomes a poem, conjuring suns, stars, galaxies, dancing with me you us,\u201d said we on The Critter<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not\ncontent to experiment with writing form, Billy interprets it through\nperformance, and back, creating a duologue between word and body. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who says you have to know the rules before you break them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nif you just make it up from early on? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy doesn\u2019t exactly say this, or say this exactly, but he wouldn\u2019t. His dramaturge and collaborator, Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, can. In his note on Tswalo: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nidea I was intending to explore and, hopefully, achieve here is that\nof fully using the body as a poetic tool and allowing the embodiment\nof the text to exist both in the body and voice, effortlessly and\nequally, without one overpowering the other… I was fascinated by\nboth worlds, those of poetry and storytelling, in theatre. Looking at\nthe two disciplines, I was really intrigued by the similarities\nbetween these two old voices and how we could shape new ways of\ntelling stories…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grandiose?\nPerhaps. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nthen you watch Tswalo<\/em>, and the mystical becomes manifest. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy,\nwho spent\nthe initial lockdown period in Hammanskraal before returning to\nJoburg,\nsays he was talking with writer Katlego Chale \u201cabout the concept of\nform and deformed nature of some writing one does. That deformation\nis a formation\u201d. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nwas talking about the \u201cway a particular person responds to a\nmedium\u201d, about \u201cnot being confined with the rules\u201d, being \u201cable\nto use them in a broken manner\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which\nbegs the question: can we now, because everything is broken? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\ncourse whatever is created has to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nif it does work, then master it, the way a person in the deep Karoo\ncan take an oil can, piece of plank and some wire, and master a new\nway of talking with six strings. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\nadapt things and bend them to our own benefit. They should serve us\nnot limit us.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nadmits puritans may not be pleased. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nhe is plucking dreams placing them on the page and performing them\nthrough the body. There hardly seems anything purer. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tswalo<\/em> came after Ngwedi<\/em>, which was first performed at the Wits SoSolo in 2014 and \u2018tells the story of a blind man who journeys through time and memory while trying to relocate his spectacles<\/a>\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afda\nstudents then adapted it into a choral piece. \u201cSix of them I\nthink,\u201d says Billy, \u201cwhich was interesting to see as an\ninterpretation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas received \u201cquite well\u201d, but in retrospect, it was the \u201cfirst\nphases of what Tswalo<\/em> has become\u201d. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Billy has been performing Tswalo<\/em> since trial performances in 2016 until just before Covid lockdown, he also wrote BAPA<\/a><\/em> for The Centre for the Less Good Idea<\/a> Season Five last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nseems to solidify the breakthrough. In BAPA<\/em> Billy writes,\nNtsika Ngxanga composes and Teresa Phuti Mojela choreographs bodies\nin space. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of\nit, Dave Mann writes: \u201cThe unique amalgamation of\nmusic, dance and theatrical performance, BAPA <\/em>is as much a\nplay as it is an hour-long existential enquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Billy\nwrites from the body. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c(I)\nwrite from the\nspace\nof performance influenced by space\u2026 It\u2019s in the writing itself,\nit\u2019s how you formulate the text.\u201d Performance and the space in\nwhich it occurs \u201caffects where the writing wants to go\u201d, it is an\n\u201corganic impulse\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nit works both ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes\nI play with the body and go back to the pages. Sometimes it\u2019s\ncorrelative, you\u2019re in the space at the same time you\u2019re working\non the page.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ninterconnection of body and word takes place in the writing, the\nimagining of how the words translate to the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m\nsort of directing myself in the writing,\u201d says Billy. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is theatre, so, \u201cyou come into the room with things you thought would be put on the floor (but) collaboration of actors, writers, directors, each has their view on what the other has to say\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne\nhas ideas that go the other way and you end up saying \u2018hey that\u2019s\neven better than what I wanted\u2019.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seemingly mundane questions can find interesting answers. What is the impulse for your writing? Is it just something you do? When did you start – have you been writing since … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[992,989,991,990,993],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3870,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3867\/revisions\/3870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}