Persona: A ‘Slice of Life’ in Mesmerising Tableaus

A Tale of the People we Hide Behind our Masks

Check out the video above for some photographs from the ASSITEJ Artistic Gathering 2019 in Kristiansand, as well as some reactions from Youth Delegates in the audience. Below, you can check out some more ‘gut responses’ to what the play brought to life!

Performance Synopsis:
I live in an apartment. There are three more people here. I don’t know who I am, where I belong or where I am. I am lost? It seems to me that these others are about the same … I live with them in this strange community because, in my opinion, it saves me from this hell of a typical view of the life in which I grew up in the witchcraft.

It’s not me, but who am I?!? What is my life like? What is myself? My Identity? Is this “typical life” my identity? I don’t know the answers, but I have this room, that time, those people and those questions to find it for myself.

The production was directed by Matteo Spiazzi.


This is Part 1 of a 2-Part series of posts about this production, click here for Part 2 where you can hear the Actors chatting about the play with Youth Delegates.

Eliot Moleba is a Johannesburg-based scholar, playwright, and director. He is one of the founding members of PlayRiot, a collective of playwrights committed to telling bold, contemporary South African stories. Moleba’s work explores social issues and how they (re)shape young people’s lives. He is now producing a ten-part series of artistic productions under the theme “The War You Don’t See”, looking at how global conflicts and migration impact and/or affect children’s lives. He was the resident dramaturg at The South African State Theatre, and is currently enrolled for a PhD in Theatre Directing at The Oslo National Academy of the Arts.