By: centraljersey.com
"There are certain people in South Africa whose lives haven’t changed much since apartheid ended and there are certain people whose lives have changed a lot," he continues, adding that both types exist within his own family. When Mandela was elected president, Mr. Mamba was 16 years old. He grew up in the Kingdom of Swaziland, which wasn’t segregated, but Mr. Mamba’s mother is South African and family members were involved in the apartheid-related struggles. The play became a personal exploration for Mr. Mamba, a way to share both perspectives. In 2006, Mr. Mamba participated in a World Theatre Lab workshop at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, where he developed, along with Crossroads’ co-founder and resident director Mr. Kahn, the concepts that led to Train to 2010. The World Theatre Lab is an international writers’ collective formed by Mr. Khan and based in Johannesburg, London and New York.
Each workshop explored the writers’ reactions, as citizens of their particular country, to a major occurrence that resulted in change. The New York workshop came shortly after Hurricane Katrina, and the writers thought about the people who were stranded on rooftops, waiting for rescue after the catastrophic natural disaster. In London, the workshop was held soon after the suicide bombings on its public transport system. Those writers explored what it meant to wake up, head to work during morning rush hour, and realize that the world has shifted around them.
In South Africa, the participants pondered what happens when you can no longer point a finger at others, "What happens when they becomes us?" Mr. Mamba asks. While under National Party rule and apartheid, inhabitants of South Africa might have said, "my life is a mess because of them." Since the establishment of a non-racial democracy, it’s up to citizens to make the future they are fighting for, Mr. Mamba says.
Mr. Mamba was selected for a subsequent workshop, along with one writer each from the New York and London labs, at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. "The idea of the train hit me then," Mr. Mamba says. "We were talking about how events shape us and define who we are." At that point, it was 12 years after the fall of apartheid and Mr. Mamba imagined driving ahead into the future. He also thought about his first time out of Africa, when he arrived in London to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 2002. The London Underground always fascinated him. Material written during the labs, which built on the idea of a train to the future, inspired Mr. Mamba to create Train to 2010.

