Press: Sainthood, Interrogating All-Boys School Culture

To prospective parents, students and audience members, you are warmly welcomed to St. Gabriel’s School for Boys.

St. Gabriel’s is one of South Africa’s most elite private schools and in it being a school that prides itself on its stellar reputation in moulding men of stature that will hopefully have a positive impact on South African society, the school goes above beyond to make sure that their students have the best of the best – including teachers, coaches, equipment and school pride – anything that threatens that is rectified with immediate effect.

This is the foundation of the 2018 Standard Bank Ovation Award winning play, Sainthood, a play moulded out of pure curiosity on the part of the director/playwright, Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni, who began writing the play after listening to the stories of her male friends who are former ‘saints’ boys. As a former ‘saints’ girl herself, she had a good idea with what she was dealing with and some of it was delightful while some of it was utterly petrifying.

With the more recent outcries caused by incidents in unisex schools such as the Pretoria Girls High hair policy saga of 2016 and the St John’s College racist educator incident of 2017, Sainthood is not saying anything new, it’s just saying something that has been kept quiet for years.

Sainthood follows five fictional matric boys in a fictional private school through a non-fictional narrative made from stories from books, newspaper articles and anonymous interviews by ‘saints’ boys that cover a range of topics from sexuality to racism.

The play is a minimalist, intimate and intense theatre experience that uses elements of physical theatre and chorus work through an escalating episodic structure starring a stellar all-male cast that is led through a turbulent see-saw between a masculinity and femininity that they either embrace or beat to death.

Sainthood will be staged at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective from the 14th of August to the 19th of August at 20:00 with additional 14:00 matinees on the 18th of August and 19th of August.

There will be Question and Answer sessions on the 17th, 18th and 19th of August evening performances.

Ticket Prices at R70.00 Ticket Bookings at theatrearts.co.za.

The production is written and directed by Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni with the assistance of Andrew Munnik and is performed by the ensemble cast of Tevin Musara, Mphumzi Nontshinga, Adam Lennox, Simphiwe Shabalala and Cullum McCormack.