Unkulunkulu the Sovereign One is told in traditional Xhosa Intsomi (storytelling) style using Tswana Shamanic drum rhythms, voice and song to explore the healing powers of the elements (Air, Water, Fire and Earth). The piece was originally created to open the World Courts of Women Against War for Peace that took place in Cape Town in March 2001.

The Courts of Women Against War for Peace was an International gathering of 4,500 women from the Global South who spoke testimonies on how they had survived war and torture. Four performers were positioned on 6ft ladders around the audience (each one representing a different direction and Element, i.e. North (Earth), South (Fire), East (Air) and West (Water). The performers wore huge animal head-dresses on their heads and long skirts to cover the length of the ladders. The story took the form of a gathering of the animals who had come to seek advice from Unkulunkulu The Sovereign Spirit.

The animals were not happy with the way in which women were being treated in our world. Ukunlunkulu advised these animals, the gatekeepers of the four directions, to draw on the qualities and energies of the elements and directions for assistance and healing.

“Cathartic transformation for your soul”- Cape Times, November 2001

Conceived by Andrea Dondolo. Workshopped by cast and director. Directed by Sara Matchett. With Andrea Dondolo and Faniswa Yisa. Beading My Soul, in collaboration with Setyazana Storytellers is Mothertongue’s third production. The play was first seen at the Artscape Arena as part of the Collaborations 2001 Festival. Stories within a story. A traditional South African myth provides a container for contemporary representations of women in Africa. From inside an elephant’s stomach come stories carefully beaded together to restore the soul. Exploring the role that beading and beadwork plays in the lives of women in South Africa, the production refreshes storytelling traditions by weaving stories, beadlike, around a central narrative thread of women’s hopes, anticipations and painful experiences. By communicating their stories, they recover the mystery of transition, the secrets of nurturing, the power to create, the strength to transform and the wisdom to heal. The play combines techniques such as physical theatre, storytelling, beadwork, breathwork, ritual and sound to tap into the body’s own wisdom and wellspring of personal dreams and universal archetypes. Beading My Soul was selected to perform on the Main Festival of the South African National Arts Festival in Grahamstown 2002. The play was also performed at the State Theatre in Pretoria and at The Market Theatre in Johannesburg as part of 2002 National Women’s Day celebrations (8-10 August). It was performed at The Macufe Festival in Bloemfontein (October 2002),at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town (November - December 2002) and at the Calabash Festival in Mmabato (December 2002).

The production traveled to Switzerland in 2004 to perform at Theatre Spiral in Geneva and at the "Sharp Sharp" Festival in Bern.

"Indawo Yamaphupha makes for engaging theatre... if you're interested in new - languages of theatre, this one's for you" - Mail and Guardian, May 2003

"The worst realities of our age are manufactured realities. It is therefore our task, as creative participants in the universe, to re dream our world. The fact of possessing imagination means that everything can be re dreamed. Each reality can have its alternative possibilities. Human beings are blessed with the necessity of transformation.” – Ben Okri

Created and performed by Andrea Dondolo, Faniswa Yisa and Sara Matchett, in collaboration with poet, Shelley Barry. Directed by Caroline Calburn.

Three people journey to a Space. A Space that allows them to explore and demystify their dreams. A Space that opens up possibilities for re-mythologising their personal histories. These stories have been inspired by the performers' personal experiences and dreams, as well as by the people they have conducted workshops with over a period of four weeks.

Indawo Yamaphupha - The Space of Dreams is The Mothertongue Project’s fourth production since its inception in September 2000, and continues to explore their vision of rediscovering the sacred and magical in theatre. It endeavours to re-ignite the importance of dreaming as a valuable tool for transformation and to realise that all human beings have their signatures stamped in the stories they tell themselves in dreams. The play combines techniques such as physical theatre, storytelling, ritual and sound to tap into the body’s own wisdom and wellspring of personal dreams and universal archetypes. Indawo Yamaphupha – The Space of Dreams performed as part of the 2003 Cape Town Festival as well as at the Intimate Theatre in Cape Town in April/May 2003.

A remarkable visionary theatrical treasure" - Argus Tonight, July 2004

The production offers an integration of theatre, visual art and literature in the form of fresh, on-the-spot performances, portraits and installations to probe democracy through the eyes of taxi drivers and commuters in South Africa. It reflects on ten years of democracy: where this has brought us, and the road yet travelled. Special focus is given to changes in women's social and sexual rights and whether women are benefiting from these changes.

As part of the creation process, workshops were held with a cross-section of women in the Western Cape. These workshops explored individual stories related to democratisation. The performance takes place on minibus taxis. In this way, the vehicles provide a container for the stories. A gallery space also forms part of the performance and houses interactive art installations with which the audience can engage after their taxi journey. Performers interact with these installations, thereby blurring the divide between visual and performing arts.

Given that the stories revolve around women’s journey’s, literally and figuratively, we decided to create a production that would involve the audience travelling on minibus taxis.

The production was selected to perform on the Main Festival at the 2004 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. After which it returned to enjoy a run at the Intimate Theatre in Cape Town.

Directed by Sara Matchett
Performed by Awino Okech and Faniswa Yisa
Created by Faith Ndukwana, Chuma Sopotela and Sara Matchett

Crossings traces a refugee woman’s journey to Cape Town. The play reveals the harsh realities faced by the many women who attempt this journey. In so doing it pays respect to and honours the voices of these marginalized women who, despite extremely taxing circumstances, pick up and carry on with incredible resilience. By providing the space for these stories to be told and most importantly, heard, Mothertongue hopes that Crossings will inspire a journey of healing and transformation.

Crossings was originally created by Faith Ndukwana, Chuma Sopotela and Sara Matchett as part of Sara’s Master’s Degree in Theatre and Performance

The play later performed at the 2004 Cape WOW Festival and featured Awino Okech and Faniswa Yisa

In association with the University of Cape Town's Drama Department, Mothertongue formed part of the line up at the 2005 Voorkamerfest in Darling, with the production of Breathing Space. At this unique festival, the people of Darling opened their homes to host professional performances by local and international artists. Inspired by the exciting mix of community spirit and quality entertainment of the first festival in 2004, Mothertongue created Breathing Space especially for the festival in September 2005.
Breathing Space focused on women in Darling’s stories in domestic spaces and involved four professional actors, Jill Levenberg, Mbali Kgosidintsi, Alex Halligey and Chuma Sopotela, working alongside women from different communities in Darling. Three houses were used as sites of performance through which the audience journeyed, with performances were taking place in different rooms in the houses.
Breathing Space saw Mothertongue once again collaborating with installation artist and award winning film-maker, Kali van der Merwe, who worked with us on our successful and ground-breaking production Uhambo – pieces of a dream. Kali worked with the Darling women to design and make the installations for the various houses.
What made the production so uniquely Darling is that it engaged ten women from Darling over a period of six weeks in the creation process and performances. The production realised the potential theatre holds for initiating conversations across fixed geographical boundaries. In a town that is racially divided by a railway line and a solid tarred road, it was Mothertongue’s intention to use a house in each of the areas, thus initiating conversations through the arts between different communities.

With financial support from the National Arts Council Mothertongue in September 2006 continued our cross-community professional theatre work in Darling. The focus of this year’s production was on the women’s dreams for Darling. The idea was to integrate theatre and visual art through performance to reflect these stories. We decided to continue to work in the small West Coast town of Darling where there are high levels of alcoholism and drug abuse resulting in rising levels of domestic violence against women. There is also a considerable divide between the different communities. The creation process took place over a period of six weeks and involved workshops with women from Darling (from all communities). The purpose of the workshops were to access the stories that are particular to the area and in particular to the womens' dreams for Darling, before engaging in the actual creation of the production. The women from Darling performed in the final production alongside two professional Mothertongue performers. The whole company (made up of professional and non-professional actors) were engaged in the design and making of design materials. Working in a small town, engaged the community of that town as much as possible in the creation and watching of the performance. It also served as a way of exposing the community to the potential that theatre holds in expressing and hopefully starting to proactively deal with social issues within the community.

Washa Mollo is a collaborative project between 5 Southern African women between the ages of 38 and 50, namely Makgathi Mokwena, Mary Manzole, Kiswigu Mpyanga , Sara Matchett and Tracey Human.  Makgathi Mokwena,  Sara Matchett and Tracey Human are based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa; Mary Manzole is based in Lusaka, Zambia; and Kiswigu Mpyanga is based in Bagamoyo, Tanzania.  All five women have varied and extensive experience in performance in their three respective countries.  Sara Matchett, who is going to direct the production, has engaged with Mary, Magkathi and Kiswigu in various capacities.  Last year she lectured Mary and Kiswigu as part of their Honours degree in Applied Drama and Theatre at Wits University.  She met Makgathi Mokwena in 2007 and subsequently invited her to join The Mothertongue Project as Programme’s Director.  Together they have conducted numerous arts workshops in South Africa and Indonesia. It was during these encounters that Sara was inspired to get these women to collaborate on a production that explores personal narratives and mythologies in relation to collective political narratives and mythologies.

Washa Mollo explores the possibilities theatre holds for facilitating conversations across geographical borders.  The linking metaphor is that of Fire.   Why Fire?  Makgathi first approached Sara about collaborating with her on a piece that explores the fire energy within her; the energy that ignites a journey of healing; the energy that ignites the masculine principle in the core of her being.  Kiswigu performed a ritual fire dance as part of her final performance exam at Wits and Mary performed a site specific piece where she built a fire and lit it. 
Sara is embarking on a PhD by creative project that explores the feminine in shamanism through performance.  At the heart of this is the element of Fire, a masculine principle. Fire, clearly is evident in these women’s lives and is the igniting factor for this collaboration.  Washa Mollo is a combination of seTswana and kiSwahili.  Washa in kiSwahili means (to iginite) and Mollo in seTswana means Fire.   The production makes extensive use of storytelling and physical theatre as it explores the personal narratives of the three performers in relation to the collective narratives of loss and grief that they have all experienced. Their various journeys towards healing are traced in parallel to a myth that  takes the form of an African Heroine’s journey.  The myth is inspired by the seTswana song Senanapo as well the yogic chakra system. In essence, the protagonist of the myth takes an inward journey through the seven chakras, towards healing.

This production is a first to be created of an intended trilogy/body of work that explores the heroine’s journey from disconnection from self to ultimate reconnection with both masculine and feminine aspects of Self at a spiritual level. The piece premiered at the Bagamoyo Arts Festival in Tanzania, performed at the Wits Nunnery Theatre and at  the Out the Box Festival in Cape Town.  The production will be performed on the Arena platform at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown this year.

Written and performed by Mbali Kgosidintsi
Workshopped by Mbali Kgosidintsi and Sara Matchett
Directed by Sara Matchett

Tseleng: The Baggage of Bags is inspired by Mbali’s (the writer and performer’s) personal narrative. She grew up traveling from city to city and as a young adult she traveled the world. To her, home has transcended into a concept and not a physical place. The memories of her childhood are filled with images of packing and unpacking bags. This memory inspired the making of this play. The metaphor of bags containing lived experience was the starting point. Stories contained in bags of all shapes, styles and sizes soon began to write themselves. Director, Sara Matchett, facilitated a process of uncovering Mbali’s memory-moments, starting from birth to present.  She made extensive use of ‘mapping’ to remind the cells of Mbali’s body what stories were living in them.  Body mapping, journey mapping, collaging and writing, all formed part of this archaeological-like process. The second phase of the process involved Mbali piecing these stories and moments into a script, which culminated in the third phase of putting it onto the floor.

The production is interwoven by a mythical narrative that echoes the book of stories, which Mbali’s mother passed down to her. These stories keep her grounded and remind her that no matter how far she goes, home seems to get closer.
Tseleng: The Baggage of Bags is about journeying to re-discover and re-member the magic of myths that shape us.  The making of this play has, in many ways, led both Mbali and Sara to reflect on what it means to stop, stay put and let go of baggage.

Tseleng: The Baggage of Bags tells the story of living in transit and the transition into womanhood. This is a journey through the nomadic life of someone who is forced to look at her fragmented past in order to sculpt an identity. This is a truly modern, contemporary, South African story, which interrogates themes of identity, language, notions of home and social positioning versus personal ambition.   Mbali and Sara believe that it is a story that speaks to many.  Issues of identity and notions of home are universal themes that are particularly pertinent in the contemporary world, where migration and social positioning are commonplace.