ISIDLAMLILO

Isidlamlilo (The Fire Eater) is an electrifying, genre defying one-woman play brought to life by acclaimed actress Mpume Mthombeni and theatre-maker Neil Coppen through their company Empatheatre.

The play is set in a downtown women’s’ hostel in Durban, where we first meet sixty-something Zenzile Maseko, a grandmother partially disabled and mistakenly declared dead by Home Affairs’ decrepit system. Zenzile, we soon discover, operated as one of the IFP’s most feared assassins (nicknamed Impundulu/The lightning bird) in the build-up to the 1994 South African elections.


Mpume Mthombeni sets the stage ablaze in a breath-taking tour-de-force, shifting seamlessly between the feared assassin Impundulu and the reborn Gogo longing to return to the house she’s building in her childhood village, iPharadise.

Based on true stories and testimonials of KZN women, the creative team have woven in elements of Zulu folklore, biblical mythology, magical-real- ist framings to make for an unforgettable theatrical experience that speaks to both the country’s haunted past and present-day complexities.

Featuring Mpume Mthombeni as Zenzile Maseko
Directed by Neil Coppen
Written by Neil Coppen in collaboration with Mpume Mthombeni