IN CONVERSATION WITH MODISE SEKGOTHE
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Through the memoirs of a boy anxiously journeying towards manhood unsupervised by the very man he needs, ‘Gabo Legwala’ takes us into the psychology of children growing up without present fathers. Set in the township of Soweto, the script further refutes the burden of performative heroism placed on boys, asserting that bullies invite sorrow to their loved ones, while peace reigns in the home of the coward—as peaceful as the chaos of township life allows. A fusion of textual boldness and narrative vulnerability, ‘Gabo Legwala’ makes a compelling argument for restraint as an equally active response to provocation. “A little boy’s life is lived constantly on the brink of war.
A persistent pushing, prodding and testing for weakness. Shoving, shocking and shaking for meekness…I was taught that conflict avoidance is virtue, that violence is vice,” the script reads. With an exceptionally poetic delivery, Modise narrates different moments of his life and the figures that shaped the model man he’s perpetually in pursuit of, like his mother, sisters and the ever-present shadow of his late, absent father.
As he wrestles his father’s lingering spectre, he offers an exploration of loss, grief and generational legacy. “At its core, this is a meditation on what it means to be a man when manhood is inherited in fragments—from soccer fields, kung fu movies, playground fights, bullying and boyish bravado. As we watch the speaker wrestle with bullying, belonging, and the ghosts of the men who failed him, the play dares to ask: What wounds do men carry when they’re raised without their fathers? What does healing look like when you’ve never seen it modelled? When is walking away an act of mere cowardice? When is it wisdom?” Modise shares. However, the work itself is not an indulgence in despair. Rather, it’s as much an admonition of deadbeat behaviour as it is a celebration of the women who are left to raise children on their own.
As a result, Modise aims to present this work in honour of his mother and sisters, who created the memorable rituals that underpin the script.
A persistent pushing, prodding and testing for weakness. Shoving, shocking and shaking for meekness…I was taught that conflict avoidance is virtue, that violence is vice,” the script reads. With an exceptionally poetic delivery, Modise narrates different moments of his life and the figures that shaped the model man he’s perpetually in pursuit of, like his mother, sisters and the ever-present shadow of his late, absent father.
As he wrestles his father’s lingering spectre, he offers an exploration of loss, grief and generational legacy. “At its core, this is a meditation on what it means to be a man when manhood is inherited in fragments—from soccer fields, kung fu movies, playground fights, bullying and boyish bravado. As we watch the speaker wrestle with bullying, belonging, and the ghosts of the men who failed him, the play dares to ask: What wounds do men carry when they’re raised without their fathers? What does healing look like when you’ve never seen it modelled? When is walking away an act of mere cowardice? When is it wisdom?” Modise shares. However, the work itself is not an indulgence in despair. Rather, it’s as much an admonition of deadbeat behaviour as it is a celebration of the women who are left to raise children on their own.
As a result, Modise aims to present this work in honour of his mother and sisters, who created the memorable rituals that underpin the script.
