“MoLoRa can be hard to watch… yet it leaves you with a more encouraging vision of humanity than anything you’re likely to see anywhere else, in any medium.”
- New York
Set after the fall of apartheid, South African playwright and director Yael Farber’s MoLoRa re-imagines the ancient Greek Oresteia to tell the story of her own country’s painful and extraordinary transition to democracy. As Klytemnestra and Elektra—mother and daughter, perpetrator and victim—sit to face each other in an open hearing, MoLoRa reenacts a watershed moment in world history, illuminating the universal and excruciating choice for any victim: to seek revenge or choose forgiveness.
Playing the role of chorus, the women of the world-renowned Ngqoko Cultural Group underscore the performance with haunting throat singing of the Xhosa tradition. Hailing from deep in rural South Africa, these guardians of a dying musical tradition bear witness as the crimes of apartheid are viscerally remembered. A relentless examination of the spirals of violence, MoLoRa is a celebration of the courage to choose forgiveness and find a path to reconciliation.
Watch the Artist Spotlight Video on Yael Farber as she discusses MoLoRa
Learn more about Dorothy Ann Gould (Klytemnestra) in her Artist Spotlight
Learn more about the Ngqoko Cultural Group in their Artist Spotlight
“Theatrical magic…a communal incantation informed by the wars and wisdom of the ages… simply one of the best productions this critic has ever seen, anywhere.”
- Montreal Gazette
MoLoRa Photos: Ruphin Couzyer
