Scene Eleven
from The Bells of Amersfoort
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2019
Summary
Lights rise on TAMI. She is holding her trombone. She blows a few notes as if to call for attention and then addresses an absent LUTHANDO in the second world.
TAMI: Dear Luthando, it's been a long time. But I am coming back. I am on my way back to our beautiful Qhoboshane Valley. You have been silent for a long time. I understand. It would be selfish of me to hold it against you. But, oh, you have been silent for a very long time. Still, I know that wherever you are, whatever you are doing, with whoever you are doing it, you will not forget the promise: to heal the wounded earth!
Enter JOHAN and KATJA.
KATJA: It's a farewell gig. She is going back home. When do you go back?
JOHAN: Maybe not at all. There is no place for me in Tami Walaza's South Africa. It is a South Africa of anger, bitterness and vengeance.
Enter HELEEN. She perches herself somewhere between JOHAN and KATJA. It is her red day. TAMI blows a few notes on the trombone again, as if to call her audience to order. She then sings. It is one of South Africa's a cappella songs. Enter from different directions MARTIJN, singing and playing, his drum hung around his shoulder; CATHARINA, using her window cleaning paraphernalia as percussion; and FRITZ holding his easel with a canvas on it. The contribution of the latter two to the song is reminiscent of their singing and humming during Johan's venereal flights. FRITZ has put the painting of a bright sunflower in front of the group as it sings. It will help if the song combines the best of South African and Dutch traditional music. As the song ends, KATJA, HELEEN and JOHAN - comprising the audience - applaud. Lights fade to black.
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- Information
- Fools, Bells and the Habit of EatingThree Satires, pp. 155 - 156Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2002