The Crocodile’s Mouth
In South Africa at the moment there is a battle between the paper shredders and the photostat machines. For each police general who is shredding documents of his past, there are officers under him who are photocopying them to keep as insurance against future prosecutions.
What has a wide enough mouth to swallow whatever we want to hide? A crocodile’s mouth.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is an enquiry established in 1995 following the settlement negotiated between the outgoing Nationalist Government and the incoming African National Congress (ANC) government of South Africa. The brief of the Commission is to examine human rights abuses that occurred in South Africa during the past thirty-five years. There were two parts to this process. Firstly, victims and survivors come to the Commission to recount their stories of what happened to them or members of their families (many of those involved did not survive, and it is left to mothers and brothers to give evidence).
The second part of the process is the amnesty hearings, in which perpetrators of these abuses may give evidence for what they have done. The incentive to do so? A full confession would bring amnesty and immunity from prosecution or civil procedures for the crimes committed. Therein lies the central irony of the Commission. As people give more and more evidence of the things they have done, they get closer and closer to amnesty, and it becomes more and more intolerable that these people should be given it.
-
+ Credits
Ubu & the Truth Commission
William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company
Theatre production with actors, puppets, and animation
First performed May 26, 1997 at The Laboratory at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg
Director
William Kentridge
Writer
Jane Taylor
Set Design
Adrian Kohler and William Kentridge
Animation
William Kentridge, with assistance of Tau Qwelane and Susie Gabie
Choreography
Robin Orlin
Music
Warrick Sony, Brendan Jury
Puppet Design and Direction
Adrian Kohler
Costumes
Adrian Kohler, Sue Steele
Lighting Design
Wesley France
Sound Design
Wilbert Schubel
Film Editor
Catherine Meyburgh
Production Coordinator
Basil Jones
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Research
Antjie Krog
Cast
Dawid Minnaar, Busi Zokufa, Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Louis Seboko
Production
Handspring Puppet Company with Art Bureau (Munich), Kunstfest (Weimar), Migros Kulturprozent (Switzerland), Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover, The Standard Bank National Arts Festival, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Market Theatre Foundation.
Ubu Tells the Truth
1997
animated film made using charcoal drawings on paper, chalk drawings on black paper, documentary photographs and 16mm archival film
35mm film, video transfer, single-channel
8 minutes
Editing
Catherine Meyburgh
Music
Warrick Sony and Brendan Jury
Etchings
Printed by Malcolm Christian at Caversham Press, South Africa
Ubu & the Truth Commission
Theatre production in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company, with actors, puppets and projections
The Commission itself is theatre, or at any rate, a kind of proto- or ur-theatre. Its hearings are open to the public, as well as being televised and broadcast on the radio. Many of the hearings are presided over by Archbishop Tutu in full purple magnificence. The hearings move from town to town, setting up in a church halls and schools. In each venue the same stage set is created. A table for the witnesses (always at least as high as that of the Commissioners so the witnesses never have to look up to them) and two or three glass booths for the translators. A large banner hangs on the wall behind the commissioners: ‘TRUTH THROUGH RECONCILIATION’. One by one, witnesses come forward and have half an hour to tell their story, to pause, weep, be supported by professional comforters who sit at the table with them. The stories are harrowing, spellbinding. The audience members sit at the edge of their seats listening to every word. This is exemplary civic theatre: a public hearing of private griefs that are absorbed into the body politic as a part of a deeper understanding of how the society arrived at its present position.
Ubu Tells the Truth
single channel video
More
More projects
Credits: Ubu & the Truth Commission
William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company
Theatre production with actors, puppets, and animation
First performed May 26, 1997 at The Laboratory at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg
Director
William Kentridge
Writer
Jane Taylor
Set Design
Adrian Kohler and William Kentridge
Animation
William Kentridge, with assistance of Tau Qwelane and Susie Gabie
Choreography
Robin Orlin
Music
Warrick Sony, Brendan Jury
Puppet Design and Direction
Adrian Kohler
Costumes
Adrian Kohler, Sue Steele
Lighting Design
Wesley France
Sound Design
Wilbert Schubel
Film Editor
Catherine Meyburgh
Production Coordinator
Basil Jones
Truth and Reconciliation Commission Research
Antjie Krog
Cast
Dawid Minnaar, Busi Zokufa, Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Louis Seboko
Production
Handspring Puppet Company with Art Bureau (Munich), Kunstfest (Weimar), Migros Kulturprozent (Switzerland), Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover, The Standard Bank National Arts Festival, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and the Market Theatre Foundation.
Ubu & the Truth Commission: Tour history
1997
Weimar, Grahamstown, Avignon, Johannesburg, Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Hannover, Rungis, Ludwigsburg, Nantes, Kristiansand, Neuchâtel, Dijon, Erlangen, Munich
1998
Stellenbosch, New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Antwerp, Stockholm, Göteborg, Copenhagen, Randers, Prague, Rome, Toulouse, Rotterdam, Paris, Reggio Emilia
1999
Saint-Denis, Wiesbaden, Lannion, Saint-Brieuc, Vannes, Quimper, Amiens, London
2014
São Paulo, Bogota, Marseille, Taipei, Edinburgh, Rome, Brussels, Athens
Credits: Ubu Tells the Truth
1997
animated film made using charcoal drawings on paper, chalk drawings on black paper, documentary photographs and 16mm archival film
35mm film, video transfer, single-channel
8 minutes
Editing
Catherine Meyburgh
Music
Warrick Sony and Brendan Jury
Etchings
Printed by Malcolm Christian at Caversham Press, South Africa