Thembani Onceya is a journalist, writer, playwright, poet, actor and director. Growing up in Grahamstown East, Onceya has worked his way to the National Arts Festival.
Thembani Onceya is a journalist, writer, playwright, poet, actor and director. Growing up in Grahamstown East, Onceya has worked his way to the National Arts Festival.
Onceya's production Programmed? will be performed daily from Monday 1 July to Friday 5 July at the Glennie Festival Centre.
Onceya grew up in Grahamstown and matriculated from Ntsika High School in King Flats, Grahamstown.
He is involved in the Writers’ Movement, begun in February. They focus on creating book clubs, poetry sessions and theatre productions for underprivileged groups.
From this Programmed? was born.
Written and directed by Onceya, this piece focuses on the unwillingness of people to speak of their traumatic experiences and the further damage to society this can have.
“We explain how silences affect your life," he said. "We are trying to unpack the silences that have kept people in a box."
The piece is a dramatic telling of the formation of a group of people who call themselves the Cycle of Knowledge, born from the realization that they all struggle and feel pain as a result of the silence they keep about their experiences, ranging from disillusionment to the loss of a loved one, to rape.
"This is a psychological theatre production," he explains. "We want to look at the growing grief.”
Onceya will also be performing some of his latest poetry at Reddits poetry at Café D’vine on Friday 28 June at 6pm.
Programmed? will be performed at the following times:
- 12.00 on 1 July
- 14.00 on 2 July
- 16.00 on 3 July
- 16.00 on 4 July
- 20.00 on 5 July
All performances will take place at the Glennie Festival Centre.
