Shared Roots: Nostalgic night

Entertaining but unimaginative describes James Ngcobo's latest musical, Ketekang , recently launched at the Market Theatre.

Ketekang is Setswana for celebrate. It is often spoken as an invitation. This makes sense as the production was conceived in collaboration between the theatre and the US embassy to celebrate a shared South African and US history - the US civil rights movement and our struggle against colonial rule and apartheid.

Ngcobo has focused on the music that made the history bearable. Favourite songs from both the African-American and South African pool of music greats are the focus of the show. Hit tunes such as Sam Cooke's It's Been A Long Time Coming, Marvin Gaye's Holy, Miriam Makeba's Hauteng, Sibongile Khumalo's Little Girl and others send the audience into flights of nostalgia.

Instead of dragging us through a dramatisation of historical moments we all know, they are suggested using snippets of dialogue, some short monologues and performance poetry.

For instance, Makeba's historic speech to the UN in 1963 has been edited down and read as a short poem.

There is dance choreography by Luyanda Sibiya, Standard Bank's Young Artist of The Year in Dance for 2015. A live band includes Ezbie Moilwa on keyboards, Godfrey Mgcina on drums, Johan Mthethwa on guitar and Sakile Nkosi on bass. Tshepo Mngoma, the musical director, plays violin.

The cast features Nokukhanya Dlamini of Joyous Celebration fame, and Aubrey Poo, who is as compelling as he is comical. His take on Donny Hathaway's One Day We'll All Be Free is a counterpoint in a scene exploring the indignity in the lives of mine-workers and bribery in the new democratic dispensation. Others lend impressive voices to the song book.

The singing is inspirational, but the cast does not own the dialogue. The festive mood of the production makes this shortcoming forgivable.

• 'Ketekang' is on at the John Kani Theatre, Market Theatre complex, until December 14