Based on the true story of the brutal mob killing of American university student Amy Biehl, ‘Mother to Mother’ is a heart wrenching tour de force of human-drama-based high art. Set during the height of unrest and rebellion in apartheid ravaged South Africa, the one woman play tells the grizzly story through the eyes of Mandisa, the mother of Mxolisi, one of the young men accused of Amy’s murder.Veteran South African actress Thembi Mtshali-Jones brings a powerful presence to the stage from the first moments of the story, expertly channelling the pain, confusion, and fear of a mother whose child has been accused of taking a life. She opens with a lament to God in Xhosa and English, asking for guidance in an unthinkably difficult moment.As Mandisa, Ms. Mtshali-Jones then addresses Amy’s mother directly, describing to her the events of August 25, 1993 from a sister mother’s perspective. Mandisa describes Gugulethu in vivid detail; the abject poverty, hunger, and fear that township residents live in daily. The description is visceral, deliberate, and complete; touching on every level of abuse, exploitation, and hopelessness regularly visited upon apartheid era townships. It is an intimate exploration of the conditions that created an atmosphere of hate and blind rage in the streets of South Africa in general, and Gugulethu in particular; a phenomenon once famously described by Malcolm X as “The hate that hate built.”Mandisa is unapologetic in her description of the way her people are treated by the white South Africans, exposing her own disgust on several occasions, but never openly condoning the actions of her son. She jokes, mocks, and waxes philosophical when describing her need to work on her white madam’s floor so that her children may eat. “The righting of one is always the undoing of another problem,” she opines, glossy eyed and yearning. It is an injustice she knows well, and accepts because it is the only hope she knows.The story continues through the growth of native pride, the festering of native anger, and the rise of racial hatred that resulted in the popularisation of the murderous slogan: ‘One settler, one bullet,’ a defiant platitude that saturated the streets of Gugulethu in the months leading up to Amy’s murder.Then the day arrives. Mandisa addresses Amy’s mother frankly, telling her the details of her daughter’s demise. About how Amy unwittingly flew into a hornets’ nest of rage while attempting to give her university friends an innocent ride home. About how Amy’s yellow Mazda became the focal point of the entire township once the frenzied, angry young insurgents recognised that there was a white woman in it. About how the mob descended on her yellow Mazda like a death shroud, and no matter how much her black friends pleaded with the rabid mob to let Amy be, nothing would stop her blood from staining the streets of Gugulethu that fateful day.Mandisa was all compassion and empathy when she related the story of Mrs. Biehl’s loss to her, and hysteria and distress when Mxolisi did not come home later that night. When the police came looking for Mxolisi at 4.00am the next morning, the beating they issued to Mandisa and her younger sons was a tragically expected exercise in futility. “How can we give you information that we do not have?” she cried, begging the cruel officers to stop their all-too-typical beating.Once Mandisa found out where Mxolisi was, she began to fear what he would tell her the next time she saw him. When her worst fears were realised, she broke down, asking him over and over, “What have you done?”Ms. Mtshali-Jones’ performance was spectacular throughout. She delivered pitch-perfect emotional drama, exquisitely timed comedy, soul-shaking song, and several spot on character studies. The story was portrayed as if it were a part of her; a personal tragedy from which she was desperately seeking redemption.Adapted for the stage from Sindiwe Magona’s novel of the same name and directed by Janice Honeyman, ‘Mother to Mother’ is a powerful story about human connections in times of great tragedy. The play closes with Mandisa repeating her appeal to God that opened the show, thus ending the courageous entreaty for forgiveness from the mother of a murderer to the mother of his victim.In real life, the parents of Amy Biehl did forgive. In fact, when the four men convicted of Amy’s murder were pardoned and given amnesty by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee in 1998, the Biehls supported their release. Amy’s father Peter shook the men’s hands when they were released, espousing the need for reconciliation and dialogue in South Africa and wherever race concerns exist.To aide in the struggle for reconciliation and dialogue between people separated by a history of violence, the Biehls opened The Amy Biehl Foundation in 1997. Two of the men convicted of Amy’s murder and subsequently released in 1998 now work for the Foundation and have reportedly become quite close to the Biehls. How’s that for a story about the strength of the human spirit to forgive and rehabilitate?Watching this story unfold was a wonderfully rich and rewarding experience. ‘Mother to Mother’ is the kind of art-imitates-life masterpiece that makes us feel good to be human, even though we remain tragically flawed. Bravo!