The Little Acorns – it was a touch and go experience

With the above quote ringing in my mind, I ventured out to work with the children at the Bhai Rambharos Children’s Home at the Aryan Benevolent Home (ABH), in Chatsworth, Durban, South Africa, to conceptualize, produce and direct a play titled The Little Acorns. The play premiered as a Facebook live event on 18 July 2020, declared as Mandela Day in South Africa when the production was staged at the Pattundeen Theatre at the ABH. When working at the Bhai Rambharos Children’s Home at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic from April–July 2020, I was aware that 96 destitute children ranging in age from 3 to 18 years were being cared for at the welfare facility. South Africa was under a strict government-imposed Level 5 lockdown and the children who were being taken care of by the welfare workers and house mothers would not be able to receive visitors or leave the premises. Touch starvation was a consequence of COVID-19's physical distancing. The pandemic took away the human touch. Handshakes were abruptly stopped and replaced by the rubbing of elbows. Every form of human touch triggered suspicion. I chose to work in the space knowing that the children were going through a lot more stress and trauma due to the pandemic and that they needed something to distract them. Having previously worked with the children for few weeks using applied theatre and dance techniques, I decided to work on a play– and thus the seed for The Little Acorns was planted. It was my intention to showcase the immense talent that we have among children who may not have been blessed with social and material privileges. The Little Acorns was to be a theatre production that traces the life of Nelson Mandela, from a village herd boy, to a Robben Island prisoner and eventually to becoming the first president of democratic South Africa.