Afronauts
The stage filled with smoke and multilingual radio chatter of automatic sequences and pressure balancing and warnings to proceed with caution, familiar voices emerge; Kennedy announcing his dream to place a man on the Moon by the end of the decade and Armstrong’s “one small step for man,” mixed with news of the establishment of an independent African state free of British colonisation, Zambia determined to demonstrate that it can stand as tall and proud as any other nation in the late twentieth century.
Aviator Edward Mukuka Nkoloso having served during the war, he has experience and ambition, establishing the Zambian Space Academy and calling on the youth of his new nation to show what they are capable of, his goal to land a capsule holding one human and two cats on the Moon by October 1964 to coincide with the independence day celebrations, Matha Mwambwa mocked by classmates as a girl who likes science but knowing she’s as able as any of them.
An aerial physical theatre collaboration by Wake The Beast and Circus Zambia, Afronauts is co-directed by Gift Chansa and Adam McGuigan, with Ephraim Phiri as Nkoloso alongside an ensemble rotating through characters and costumes, Angel Phiri, Hassan Gwai, John Kaluba, Belinda Kaputula, John Mputu, Bergus Siatubuto and Musa Zulu throwing themselves into their parts and the air, reaching for the luminous stars streaking past overhead.
The sky above them open, the technical challenges are many but Nkoloso shields his young charges from those, instead inspiring with them as he fights for funding, hoping to curry favour with President Kaunda for whom he named his rocket, the story told through music, dance and song, the Afronauts finding their place in the team and learning to soar as high as their voices.
Inspired by real events, Nkoloso genuinely hoping to challenge the USA and USSR in the space race in the sixties, or at least giving the impression of doing so in order to create direction and purpose at the birth of Zambia, the Afronauts always reaching higher, entwined in ropes or each other as pairs of entangled celestial bodies, dreamers and believers in a singular vision which can be rekindled.
Afronauts continues at the Udderbelly at Underbelly on George Square until Monday 31st August
