When you watch a play in a language you don’t understand, suddenly you gain a jarring insight into the daily reality of millions of people who have to speak, learn, read and comprehend in a tongue that is not their own. You are forced to scour the piece for nonverbal clues, decode the actors’ physicality and make educated guesses.This is one of the revelations that the play Mosali Eo U ’Neileng Eena (The Woman That You Have Given Me) throws up at the non-Sesotho-speaking viewer, but its significance goes beyond that.Mosali, the first entirely Sesotho professional production to be staged at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre, is a tacit acknowledgment that #LanguageHegemonyMustFall — and that theatres need to start producing #TheatreForAll.Director Selloane "Lalu" Mokuku is known for her work with the ShakeXperience arts education group (including co-producing Neil Coppen’s inspired imagining of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, which is returning to the Market soon).She says: "It’s been a dre...
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