The Cenotaph of Dan Wa Moriri is a sensitive, finely crafted biographic play about Daniel Rasenga Miyambo. A unique, collaborative journey about adolescence, love, loss, grief, memory, and intimacy which unfolds through a personal narrative about a father-son relationship cut too short. Exploring an intimate father-son relationship recalled and reconstructed through memory, remembered moments from the past, fading images captured in sepia-toned photographs, conjured up conversations, snippets of music, truths and half- truths. It is an ancient human attempt to connect our present to the past by mapping our relationships with the one’s we love. The Cenotaph for Dan wa Moriri finds form in grief, examines the disappearance and reconstruction of memory to honour the intimacy of individual history.

Bester, Miyambo and Harding worked to uncover poetic form and reconstruct personal history and narrative and have created a poignant, sincere rendering that critic Adrienne Sichel described as “a mobile, theatrical, tombstone honoring the life and legacy of his parent – the Ekurhuleni hair stylist who fried his own son’s hair.”

This show will be performed for the first time in Cape Town as part of a double bill with Miyambo's other clitically acclaimed solo, Kafka's Ape.

Media & Reviews

Everything you said, and how you said it was perfect and sad, and beautiful and true. I think you are the most wonderful performer and actor and wordsmith and theatre magician.Dear reader. I urge you to see this. This is theatre at its purest and most direct. It drills a perfect hole straight into your heart.

Audience Responses

Tony's performance was absolutely incredible. I consider it a precious gift. Thank you Tony.

Poignant and a performance that hit home

an outstanding exploration of the performer's skill. Very fine timing, Great use of language and physical environment. deeply funny; deeply sad.

An incredible performance, equal parts haunting and hilarious. Superb use of lighting, props and physical performance supporting an effective narrative.

For people sitting on the right when facing the stage there was a serious light problem l as the bright light when turned on blinded the viewer. This was both disturbing and painfull

Very moving. The playwright/actor's vulnerability was beautiful and refreshing (something often lost in father–son narratives). I loved the physicality of the performance, the repetition that became poetry, the symbolism of everything.

an outstanding exploration of the performer's skill. Very fine timing, Great use of language and physical environment. deeply funny; deeply sad.

Loved the show immensely. Tony Miyambo delivered a stellar performance and handled such a delicate and sensitive story with such honour and care. Caught between laughing and crying and laugh crying.

Loved it. Review out soon.

FUCKING AMAZING!GO WATCH IT!

hilarious and very moving, howled my eyes out in fact.. incredible work thank you Tony

Really powerful, beautiful rendering of the inner workings of one's emotions and relationship to another human being, from the formation to the loss of that bond.

Excellent! Really enjoyed the writing, acting, length, staging. Everything!

You should have supplied complimentary tissues xxx I loved it. And I love the intimacy of the space.

Superb!! Top notch performance. We left the theatre so moved and could barely articulate our feelings. Tony Miyambo is a genius.

Very moving and beautifully staged.

an outstanding exploration of the performer's skill. Very fine timing, Great use of language and physical environment. deeply funny; deeply sad.

Good actor and lovely performance.

Very effective application of the little wood blocks and deeply touching insight into a young man's life and his memories and losses.