The Isango Ensemble’s stirring a cappella rendering of the Lutheran hymn O Lamm Gottes, unschuldig, sung in English translation, has a raw and affecting power, and it becomes a recurring motif in the South African theatre troupe’s reimagining of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The group has made a career, in part, out of re-examining Western canon works from a South African perspective – they have tackled Mozart’s The Magic Flute (which came to the Melbourne Festival in 2011), Puccini’s La Bohème and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, for example – but this is their first time taking on a major oratorio.

Isango Ensemble’s St Matthew Passionat the Bergen International Festival. Photo © Helge Skodvin

Simply staged against a backdrop of corrugated iron, marimbas lining the sides of the stage, this production, directed by Mark Dornford-May, premiered at the Bergen International Festival in May and retells the Passion story in a little over an hour, with Bach’s music, in arrangements for marimba, mingling with African laments and traditional songs, in a rich melding by Music Director Mandisi Dyantyis, who also stars as a soulful Christ.

As in SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill, vigorous dance numbers and...