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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 April 2025
In this reflective discussion, the creators of Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater, Neil Coppen and Mpume Mthombeni, address questions posed by co-producer and education sociologist Dylan McGarry. Together they delve into the essence of this Empatheatre production, examining the character Zenzile Maseko as a powerful symbol of defiance and care in the face of adversity. Her journey through a political and historical purgatory reconfigures the stereotypical archetype of the stoic black African grandmother, emphasising the complexities of human experience.
Dylan: This play comes at a time when all South Africans feel like survivors, having endured and still enduring the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1990s, the Covid-19 pandemic, rolling blackouts, climate anxiety and an almost endless list of apocalyptic catastrophes. As these horrors fold into each other, we realise we require some ways of staying with the anxiety of them. So to begin, I would love to know from both of you, how has making this play helped you defy death in the face of crises and stay with the full reality of the problems we face?
Neil: KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is both of our homes, and our work as theatre makers and storytellers has been greatly inspired by this province and its people. But for all its beauty and magic, KZN has always been a land of extremes. There is this underlying sense that things could erupt into chaos at any moment, due either to political instability or to forces such as natural disasters. The writing of Isidlamlilo/The Fire Eater was set in motion during the July 2021 riots. We were just coming out of the Covid-19 lockdown when a massive wave of civil unrest swept across the province. For several days we were surrounded by the sounds of gunfire and helicopters hovering overhead. Malls and factories were looted and set alight and toxic plumes of smoke blackened the skies and poisoned the rivers. It was an incredibly dystopian and terrifying moment in time and I remember calling Mpume and saying, ‘I don't know what to do with this anxiety. I don't know where to put it.’
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