I love when a theatre is full of young energy and spirit. Greeted by some wine and cheese at the entrance, there’s a warmth and attention to detail in the experience that I was impressed with for this production.

 

We waltzed into the Theatre on The Square auditorium on Thursday night, 23 October to experience The Locksmiths Collective’s Musical Chairs, written and choreographed by Genesis Shirindza. I couldn’t help but be excited for the performers to be witnessed and received by open and energetic young people. The physical theatre play as described by Shirindza, “is about power struggle”. “The story is about the four main social medias. And the chairs and the musical chairs game symbolize (the(ir) partnership”.

 

Four chairs sat huddled together centre stage, before any of the bodies came to be their ‘masters’. The towering Pacou Matombo kicks off the ride, and is slowly joined by the undeniably talented Ceejay Anthony, then the flowing Jordan Van Wyk, and familiar face, Hungani Ndlovu on the fourth chair.

If I attempt to assign social media platforms to each one, I’d dare to say Pacou is Facebook. Mainly because well, he’s older. Then Ceejay is Twitter, she has that fire and that hot confrontational energy. Then Jordan would be Instagram because he’s just so beautifully put together and Hungani on there would be TikTok because of the light energy and the popular moves, honestly.

 

Musical Chairs is a physical theatre piece with no text whatsoever; it’s all embodied. I waited and hoped but it just never came. As someone who functions primarily through words, text, language; I obviously suffered a little therefore being challenged to really be part of this movement. When they broke the fourth wall with instructions for the audience to clap and play and do tricks, I obliged. I joined the movement.

Then the clapping hand and arm routine got harder to follow and I became a fly on the wall, my fave. You could feel the excitement in the atmosphere that everyone had being in communion and playing together with the cast. I love when art does that – in music, theatre, visual art, performance art. The communion of doing something together is cute. Then…

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They called in an audience member to come join them on stage. I thought this was actually a random stranger. That is how well they played that one. That’s when Shirindza’s character joins the opening quartet on stage and he gets initiated into all the fun and the dances. I enjoyed how layered the play was in terms of tapping into different realms of reality then back onto stage.

 

Initially I had imagined the play is about earning a chair. That one’s got to dance or work for it. And to some extent, that’s a thing we do with and on social media platforms. It is a necessary ritual for any space, really. Except unlike the character Shirindza plays, I would advise one to have their own dance. Show up as yourself fully, moving to your own routine and beat. He keeps trying to please each one and that can only be draining.

I then got the vibe that it’s about community. And part of it was. Yemimah Jacobs, Nicolas Strous, Omphemetse Kopeledi, Kgothatso Lebeko and Casey Van Wyk later come onto stage and there are various themes of love, gender performances and stereotypes, friendships and online dating they touch on.

 

 

I would say there is a lot of beauty in being part of a community online. And feeling seen and sharing interests is what we as humans, use to propel and share more of ourselves.

 

The script was written in 2020, rewritten twice after rejections. And it was positive reception that led to a second run of the show after it previewed earlier this year January 2025. The work was first exhibited in December 2023 as a four-person piece. It was then extended and restructured in 2024 with a new cast.

 

Like the play itself, most of the music used in the play was without lyrics; for a while. That was until Oscar Mbo & KG Smallz’s 'Yes God' which awakened the audience’s energy and Chris Brown’s ‘Yo’.

I Shazamed the songs I enjoyed so you’ll find them at the end of the piece (It’s a pleasure!).

The wedding choreography or routine was also a highlight for me. Because it just connected me to our usness – you know that one where you go: You do the feet meeting in the front then at the back, then you seal it with a double high-five then move away then join again to repeat. I don’t know its origins per se but it is so South African, like?

 

I only realised later on that the sounds are notification sounds. And then it started to make a little bit of sense. I was not sure for a long while what the play’s storyline was but I was engaged in this story. And I was sucked in. Just like the young man, who gets sucked into that world with the chairs. Learning their dances, making connections and investing his time, energy and effort into trying to make everyone happy and like him. Or even so, just trying to be seen.

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When the character Shirindza plays left the auditorium at the end, because of all the rejection it was powerful. It was another powerful layer. I truly appreciate the texture of the play in this regard. He absolutely logged off and was not part of that world anymore. Makes sense because ideally, Shirindza mentioned, with the full theatre design, the whole theatre auditorium would be the phone interface.

 

In our chat after the play, Shirindza mentions that we are all overstimulated at the end, trying to be this and that for social media. And I could not agree more. Each social media platform has its different dance instructions and one can only know so much. I think it’s a blessing to be able to show up kindly for yourself and your mental health. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone to be seen. You can exist within it without the over-exertion.

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With the direction social media is taking, we can’t quite fight it but we can protect ourselves and our mental health in ways that work for us personally.

 

Thank you, Daphne Kuhn. The cast really appreciates you.

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I would like to urge young people to go watch this play. It’s really powerful in its approach and for the kind of audience they are speaking to. I mean, it is not any specific group.

But the youth need to hear this first - they are the future.

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