A Reimagined Story: Kabel by The Matsena Brothers In Dance
On 5-7th May, Kel and Anthony Matsena premiered their long-awaited duet KABEL at Sadler’s Wells East. The historic story of Cain and Abel was reimagined by the brothers in dance as they portrayed history’s first sibling rivalry and murder through text and movement. KABEL is unlike any other show. The Zimbabwean-Welsh acts exceptionally explored the means attached to this passage from jealousy, responsibility, honesty to relationships. It makes one wonder: what are the consequences of our actions? Have we betrayed someone beyond repair? Do we need to do better as individuals? These questions permit us to ask ourselves and really reflect on our lives, and behaviours.
Presenting the beauty and brutality of the ancient clash, KABEL began with a joyous representation of their sibling bond. The laughter and light-hearted dialogue beautifully showcased the acts childhood upbringing through its innocence. Smoothly transitioning to the hardships, the audience would witness a change in mood, dialogue and production - representing the siblings adolescence and later dark ages. The directors and talents unique approach to storytelling is one that'd influence many generations to come.
Speaking more on the KABEL, importance of Black ownership, theatre and dance, BAFTA Award-winning director Kel Matsena gets candid with BLK BRIT.
Kel Matsena [right] and Anthony Matsena [left], photography by Kirsten McTernan
Tell us about your background, how did you become involved in theatre and dance?
My journey into dance, theatre and creativity was really started by my older brother Arnold, who runs the company with us as well. He was obsessed with dance when he was a child, he wouldn’t eat if certain songs weren’t on or if he wasn’t able to dance as a baby. So he grew up dancing and us as younger brothers were like, ‘What’s this stuff?’. Then he started getting really good, started doing like back-flips and stuff. Then took myself and Anthony under his wing, he mentored us, he was our first teacher and we became like a hip-hop trio. I really fell in love with it, competed around the UK and all that sort of stuff, then after that, started to discover contemporary dance through Anthony who went to college.
The wonderful tutor Julie and ballet dancer Sarah took us under their wings and introduced us to physical storytelling really, before we knew about physicality as something to entertain. Movement is something that’s aesthetically pleasing but the journey of storytelling and exploring your own character and the things around you sort of came through contemporary dance, and ballet. Through that, I was like, ‘Wow, I really love exploring stories’, which inspired me to go study at Bristol Theatre School, I had an amazing time there. Bristol is such a vibe. Whilst I was studying as an actor, Anthony was studying at London Contemporary Dance School, and while we were in our training, we quickly started to realise that, that all the shows we were going to see, all the plays we were studying or the dance companies we were studying, were all very excellent in their [own] rights. But there were no explorations of people who looked like us or our stories. We felt like they weren’t being told or being explored in their own fullness beauty and brutality of those stories. So, if we wanted to have those stories told, we have to tell them ourselves. That began our journey into starting up our own company. The rest is history.
Kel Matsena [right] and Anthony Matsena [left], photography by Kirsten McTernan.
Can you describe how growing up in an African household and predominately white community has influenced your work?
Born in Zimbabwe, a very African household and then moving to Wales, was a complete shift. The shift wasn’t in terms of language and stuff - English was always the first language, the educational system is still very much the same because of the remnants of colonialism. It’s just little cultural things, where suddenly you felt this shift between what you’ve grown up to be and now, the world that’s around you. But I have to say, there was a real duality that I experienced in my younger years and still do sometimes in Wales. You’re sort of trying to hold on to who you are and where you come from but you also want to embrace the place you’re in. That took a few years to actually be like, ‘Oh I can proudly be Zimbabwean and Welsh, and represent both sides’. You see it a lot in our work because our work has a duality in it. We always want to look at something from multiple angles. The mix of cultures for us was a really powerful thing. We talk about duality because you go from being embraced as a creative and dancer and then, on your way home at the bus stop, you might encounter someone who just doesn’t like the way you look. That constant duality of trying to find a place of feeling safety and security, it’s the rhythm and dance of life. We try make that exist in our work.
Over the years, there’s been a rise of Black ownership more than ever. From owning our stories, career path to rules. How important is Black ownership to you?
Black ownership is such an important thing. I have felt that way and I think we all do. Whether that’s consciously or subconsciously. We’re seeing it with these Netflix drama’s like Supacell and Top Boy. You look at the scale of those stories that are being told, look at it in literature, you see books like Small World. All these things again that are being explored, Nollywood and the affect it’s making. Black beauty brands and how they’re leading, Black fashion brands, streetwear. Black ownership I think is such a wonderful and incredible thing because when you grow up and especially in the western world, you’re really dominated by things that have existed hundreds of years before you and you don't see your names or people that look like you leading these things. You see them supporting these things so subconsciously you don’t even realise it’s a possibility but I think Black ownership is important for the individual to feel that sense of empowerment to know that your stories are important, your ideas are powerful and can affect people who look like you and people who won’t look like you.
But it’s also very important for representation, for those coming after us. To see that, ‘Oh wow, that’s actually a path for me’ because for myself and Anthony, it was a wonderful choreographer called Joseph Toonga who is now a resident choreographer for the World Of Ballet, an opera which is just incredible. He came down to Swansea to our college, and he did a somewhat intensive course with contemporary dance, mixing with hip-hop and he’s running his own company. This is a Black British man, and we were like, ‘Wait what, what’s going on here? This is possible?’. Those were the early seeds which has led us to where we are now. So we just hope to be an early seed for someone in the future.
Kel Matsena [left] and Anthony Matsena [right], photography by Kirsten McTernan
Your latest duet KABEL interprets history’s first murder through movement. Speak to us about the show, why Cain and Abel?
Very early on, we’re talking 8 years ago, we were experimenting with ideas for a duet. At that time, we were just interested in the physicality, story wasn’t really coming through. Through all the iterations of these movements, a duet was created. We were walking towards Waterloo station in 2017 and was like, ‘Yeah if we were to make a full length work, what stories could we tell? We’re brothers, what about Cain and Abel?’. We never spoke about it for like 4 years and it was way after the pandemic, we decided to revisit it. But it was something about reading that story and seeing how it has gone from the first conceived man, Cain being the older brother and murderer, and how we’ve seen that all the way to this very day. How we treat our brothers and our sisters. How jealousy and rage completely blind us and make us forget the people that we started with, come from the same womb with, same city and village with. We felt like it was just speaking on a familial level in terms of family and siblings relations, and how little things can add up. On a real personal level, it was touching. But on a societal and political level, it just speaks to how countries and nations speak to each other. We’re extracting the truth of the story so that it can penetrate deeper into the hearts of the audience.
We’re planning a tour for KABEL, likely coming in 2026 so yes, we’re in the process of speaking with venues and locking down some things! It’s going to be very exciting to take our work to different cities and audiences who’s never engaged with it. I feel like that’d be real growth for us. Touring isn’t easy though (laughs) but it’s going to be a wonderful and important step for us to take. So yeah, looking forward to it!
