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RESURRECTING SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD (1972–2008): JOHN KANI, WINSTON NTSHONA, ATHOL FUGARD, AND POSTAPARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2009

Gibson Alessandro Cima
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Extract

On 30 June 2006 at the annual National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, two giants of South African protest theatre, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, performed as the original cast of the landmark struggle drama Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (1972). The revival marked the first production of the play in over twenty-five years. After its brief stint at the National Arts Festival (30 June–5 July 2006), the play transferred to the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town (11 July–5 August) and then entertained a monthlong run at the State Theatre in Pretoria (17 August–17 September). After its turn at the State, the production stopped shortly at the Hilton College Theatre in KwaZulu Natal (19–23 September) before settling into an extended engagement at Johannesburg's Market Theatre (28 September to 22 October). In March 2007, the original cast revival of Sizwe traveled to the British National Theatre before finally ending its tour at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in April 2008.

Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 50 , Special Issue 1: African and Afro-Caribbean Performance , May 2009 , pp. 91 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2009

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References

Endnotes

1. John Kani, interview with the author, 20 August 2006, Pretoria, South Africa.

2. Winston Ntshona, interview with the author, 3 September 2006, Pretoria, South Africa.

3. Perhaps for this very reason, very few interviews from the period feature Ntshona.

4. I make this statement with some trepidation. Kani's Nothing but the Truth (2002) is a matter of record. Evidence of Ntshona's playwriting, however, is more difficult to unearth. Although Ntshona expressed a desire to revisit his play Brother Sam, Where Is George? during his 20 August 2006 interview with me, I have found no other reference to this play. My understanding from talking to him is that Ntshona's plays have been community-based engagements.

5. In a 2004 joint interview with Kani, Fugard acknowledged: “My experience was rooted in my white reality. We have to face the fact that as South Africans, brothers as we call ourselves, we nevertheless come from different worlds. With John[ Kani]'s play, [Nothing But the Truth, the audience] is going to get—for the first time, because no other black writer has done that—a take on the black experience [in exile] and the consequences of all that in the lives of black South Africans. That is a story I couldn't have written.” Quoted in Shirley, Don, “Theater; Healing Apartheid's Wounds; A New South Africa Presents Subtler Yet Still Complex Issues for Examination by Playwrights and Friends Athol Fugard and John Kani,” Los Angeles Times, 26 September 2004, E33Google Scholar.

6. The cross-cultural casting of well-known Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) actor Ian Bannen as Morris alongside Mokae as Zach raised the ire of some critics because of the contrast between the RSC-trained syntax of Bannen and the thick South African accent of Mokae. Evening Standard critic Milton Shulman also derisively commented that the two men resembled each other “like I resemble Elizabeth Taylor”; Shulman, Milton, “New Twist—Old Situation,” Evening Standard (London), 22 February 1963, 4Google Scholar. Additionally, the length of the play—although heavily cut from its originally four-hour run time—may have been a deterrent to London audiences. Mokae later recalled that during curtain call on opening night of the Hampstead production of The Blood Knot, the house was nearly empty; Zakes Mokae, interview with the author, 15 August 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa.

7. Tynan, Kenneth, “Under the Influence,” Observer (London), 24 February 1963Google Scholar.

8. Gellert, Roger, “Mates,” New Statesman (London), 1 March 1963, 315–16Google Scholar.

9. Athol Fugard, notebook entry, 13 May 1963, Fugard MSS, Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Also quoted in Fugard, Athol, Notebooks, 1960–1977, ed. Benson, Mary (London: Faber & Faber, 1983), 81Google Scholar.

10. Ibid.

11. Athol Fugard, notebook entry, 13 July 1963, Fugard MSS. Also quoted in Fugard, Notebooks, 91. The Special Branch interrupted the Serpent Players' first rehearsal and recorded the names of everyone in the room.

12. This incarcerated Serpent Player later staged a one-man version of Antigone for the inmates of Robben Island that led indirectly to the premise for Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona's second collaboration, The Island.

13. Ntshona, interview with the author.

14. Ibid.

15. Fugard, Athol, Statements: Three Plays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974), xiGoogle Scholar.

16. Ibid., x.

17. Fugard later revisited this situation in his play “Master Harold”—and the boys (1982).

18. This tension over which one of them brought the photos into their collaboration reveals their ongoing struggle over the authorship of the play. This issue resurfaces in my 2006 interviews with Kani and Ntshona that I discuss later.

19. Sanders, Mark, Complicities (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002), xCrossRefGoogle Scholar. Subsequent page citations are given parenthetically in the text.

20. Fugard, Statements, ix. Subsequent page citations are given parenthetically in the text.

21. Ibid., xi. Fugard's emphasis.

22. Ibid., xii.

23. Ibid.

24. Charad, Linda, “Kani the Actor without a Script,” Sunday Times (South Africa), 29 July 1973, 20–1. My emphasisGoogle Scholar.

25. Ibid.

26. Lester, Elenore, “I Am in Despair about South Africa,” New York Times, 1 December 1974, Arts & Leisure §, 165Google Scholar.

27. Richards, David, “Black Actors on Living in South Africa,” Washington [DC] Star, 31 July 1975, 1Google Scholar.

28. Ibid.

29. Charad, 20.

30. Ibid., 20–21. “Banzi” was the original spelling. Its reproduction as “Bansi” was the result of a typographical error in press materials for the Royal Court production. The error appears in many reviews of Sizwe from this period. Its appearance in the 1974 Oxford publication of Sizwe's script suggests a decision to retain the alternative spelling. This seemingly trivial issue has wide-ranging implications, since “Sizwe Banzi” means “strength of the nation,” whereas the alternative spelling does not have the implication of resistance.

31. This view of Sizwe's authorship contrasts starkly with Ntshona's statement in a 1986 interview that an Oxford University Press representative told him that he “ought to be grateful that John [Kani] and [Ntshona's] name[s] were even mentioned in the credits. It was obvious … that only Athol Fugard could have written such plays.” Quoted in Podbrey, Joe, “Ntshona—Artist with a Conscience,” Business Day (London), 2 March 1986, 14Google Scholar.

32. Marquard, Jean, “Sizwe Banzi Is Alive and Well,” To the Point (London), 23 December 1972, 46AGoogle Scholar.

33. Stephen Gray, interview with the author, 30 August 2006, Johannesburg, South Africa.

34. Marquard.

35. Younghusband, Peter, “South Africa: Breaking the Silence,” Newsweek, 30 April 1973, 21Google Scholar. See also Benson, Mary, Athol Fugard and Barney Simon: Bare Stage, A Few Props, Great Theatre (Randburg, South Africa: Ravan Press, 1997), 103Google Scholar.

36. Quoted in C. Fraser, Gerald, “2 Actors Find a Universality in ‘Sizwe,’” New York Times, 1 April 1975, 29Google Scholar.

37. Ibid.

38. Quoted in Richards.

39. Seymour, Alan, “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead,” Plays and Players 21.2 (1973): 51–2Google Scholar.

40. Nightingale, Benedict, “Sparks of Life,” New Statesman (London) 28 September 1973Google Scholar.

41. Ibid. Nightingale's statement is racist to the extent that he equates “crudeness” or “looseness” with black people.

42. Elsom, John, “Styles and Sizwe,” Listener (London), 3 January 1974Google Scholar.

43. Trew, Betty, “‘Sizwe Bansi’ a Success on London Stage,” Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), 21 September 1973, 11Google Scholar. My emphasis.

44. “Separate Fables,” Guardian (London), 8 January 1974.

45. Ibid. The word Bantu, which means “people,” has a slightly derogative connotation in South Africa.

46. “Fugard ‘Lone Voice,’” Cape Times (Cape Town, South Africa), 14 January 1974.

47. Ibid.

48. Gray, Stephen, File on Fugard (London: Methuen, 1991), 43Google Scholar.

49. Benson, 103.

50. “The Fugard Season,” The Stage (London), 17 January 1974.

51. Niven, Alastair, “Athol Fugard in Britain,” Commonwealth Newsletter 7 (1975)Google Scholar, quoted in Gray, Stephen, ed., Athol Fugard (Johannesburg: McGraw–Hill, 1982), 88Google Scholar. On 25 February 1974, Sizwe shared with Christopher Hampton's Savages the coveted London Theatre Critics Award for Best Play for the 1973–4 London theatre season.

52. Quoted in Smith, Colin, “White Man on a Tightrope,” Observer (London), 6 January 1974Google Scholar.

53. Ibid.

54. Lester.

55. Fraser.

56. Lester.

57. Walder, Dennis, Athol Fugard (New York: Grove Press, 1985), 87Google Scholar.

58. Fugard, Athol, “Sizwe Banzi is Dead,” in A Night at the Theatre, ed. Harwood, Ronald (London: Methuen, 1982), 26–33Google Scholar.

59. Kruger, Loren, The Drama of South Africa: Plays, Pageants, and Publics since 1910 (New York: Routledge, 1999), 161Google Scholar. Kruger's emphasis.

60. Ibid. Kruger's emphasis.

61. Oakes, Phillip, “The Liberty Man,” Sunday Times (London), 7 April 1974Google Scholar. Although Fugard is giving credit to Kani and Ntshona, it should be noted that he refers to them as actors and not as coauthors.

62. Gottfried, Martin, “Fugard Copes with Africa,” New York Post, 14 November 1974Google Scholar.

63. Barnes, Clive, “‘Sizwe Banzi’ Is a Message from Africa,” New York Times, 14 November 1974, 56Google Scholar.

64. “Black Actors Home after US Success,” Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth, South Africa), 22 May 1975. In a 2004 interview, John Kani recalled that not only did the Nationalist government ignore their achievement but the black residents of their home township of New Brighton also resented the actors for their success: “When we came back from America and winning the Tony Award … New Brighton was not interested in celebrating the thing at all. We had to organize some small reception at the St. Stephen's Church Hall [the same location as their performance of Sizwe the previous year] and the people just came for the food. They didn't wait for the speeches about what a Tony Award was. The fact that you had more food than the others—you got resented.” Quoted in Shirley.

65. Loudon, Bruce, “Actors Held over Satire on Apartheid,” Daily Telegraph (London), 13 October 1976Google Scholar.

66. Quoted in Greig, Robert, “Two Black Political Prisoners Leave the Mythical Island and Come to Town,” The Star Tonight (Gauteng, South Africa), 22 June 1977, 14Google Scholar. The article interviews Kani and Ntshona about a revival of The Island at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The eponymous island refers to South Africa's far-from-mythical Robben Island. Greig may have referred to a “mythical island” because there were laws against referencing Robben Island.

67. Fugard, Notebooks, 226.

68. Athol Fugard, notebook entry, January 1977, Fugard MSS. Fugard's emphasis. This is the second of two passages concerning the 1977 Royal Court revival of Sizwe. The first, written during the rehearsal process, spoke of Fugard's optimism. The second, written after he had returned to South Africa, displayed his disappointment with the production. In Fugard's published notebooks, however, the two passages are combined in such a manner as to suggest that the opposite was true—that Fugard initially felt wary of mounting the revival but changed his mind as a result of the rehearsal process and embraced the play and its production.

69. Kani mentioned in his interview with me that his passport during the 1980s listed his nationality as “undetermined” because the Nationalist government did not consider him a good ambassador for South Africa.

70. Kani, interview with the author.

71. Athol Fugard, notebook entry, undated, 1985, Fugard MSS.

72. Ibid.

73. “Talking about Culture with John Kani,” New Nation (Johannesburg), 10 September 1992.

74. Nunns, Stephen, “The Market Turns a Corner: The Revolutionary South African Theatre Is Facing a Complex New Century,” American Theatre 24.2 (September 2007): 54–60Google Scholar.

75. Goodwin, Christopher, “White Man's Burden,” Sunday Times (London), 23 January 2000Google Scholar. It is important to note that while Fugard has avoided involvement in revivals of his apartheid-era work since the mid-1980s, his postapartheid output of about one play a year has in large part dramatized personal stories of his years as a South African living under the Nationalist government.

76. Kani, interview with the author.

77. Ntshona, interview with the author.

78. Ibid.

79. Quoted in Zulu, Mpumi, “Theatre Greats Reunite in Classic,” Sunday Sun, 25 June 2006Google Scholar.

80. Sichel, Adrienne, “Theatre of a Lifetime,” Star Tonight, 3 October 2006Google Scholar.

81. Snyman, Wilhelm, “Challenging a Sense of Ourselves, Protest Theatre Transcends Time, Racism and Hatred,” Cape Times, 18 July 2006Google Scholar.

82. Kani, interview with the author.

83. Ntshona, interview with the author.

84. Kani, interview with the author.

85. Ibid.

86. Ntshona, interview with the author.

87. Kani, interview with the author.

88. Ntshona, interview with the author.

89. Ibid.

90. Kani, interview with the author.

91. Ibid.

92. Ibid.