From the multi award-winning Theatreduo comes a celebration of solo performance. Tswalo, re-published by iwalewabooks in 2019, intertwines poetry and physical storytelling to explore the rules governing life on earth, such as power, creation, politics, connection, and intuition. It reflects the performer’s expression of his ‘source’ and is the result of a creative collaboration: written and performed by Billy Langa, with direction, dramaturgy, and design by Mahlatsi Mokgonyana, alongside award-winning composer and sound designer John Withers. Tswalo has received accolades including the Standard Bank Ovation Award and has toured South Africa, Namibia, Germany, and Scandinavia. The work consists of fragmented poems that convey a narrative through physicality and voice, set in a timeless space that delves into themes of being, chaos, beauty, blood, birth, love, and war. By combining ritual, physical storytelling, and heightened text, Tswalo creates a distinct theatrical language that reconstructs and deconstructs traditional storytelling. Critics from Weekend Special praised it, stating, “This is what theatre should, and can be.” Iwalewabooks proudly presents this re-publication, featuring a foreword by Nondumiso Msimang.
