Chi Mhende
 
Thursday 26 January
 
Not many of our guests have their Victoria Beckham pose as perfected as Chi Mhende.
 
The Zimbabwean-born performer and voice-over artist is back in Cape Town, her first South African love, “to revive Maynardville for all of the summer festival lovers”.
 
Returning after 10 years, Chi will be performing in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
 
Known to many as Wandile from Generations: The Legacy, Chi is no stranger to crossing the boundaries of gender when playing a role.
 
“I feel very lucky that my work has taken me into spaces of social conversations, social justice,” she says.
 
Traditionally the actress that plays Titania in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is also the actress that plays Hippolyta, the queen. Oberon and Theseus are played by the same actor, according to Chi.
 
“This year Geoff Hyland [the director] has switched it up with a gender-bender, and again I will be in the space of performing as a man, as the king of the fairies, I’ll be playing Oberon.”
 
She tells Thabiso that she doesn’t get used to performing these roles “because every man and every woman is different. To get into the mind or the body of a different person each time is a whole new experience.”
 
Chi is particularly excited about this year’s Maynardville because Geoff Hyland has brought in fresh out of UCT graduates. “To feel like you’re also a leader of a pack is quite exciting. I really hope that some of the work that I’m stepping into now speaks to the rest of my own legacy,” she says.
 
Get tickets to the show here: https://bit.ly/3XEzDkT
 
Follow Chi on social media: @chi_mhende / Chi Mhende / @chi_mhende