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Of identity and race
SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD
National Theatre
IN 1972, at a time when mixed-race casting was something very new that aroused anger and fear in South Africa, Athol Fugard wrote Sizwe Banzi is Dead and collaborated with John Kani and Winston Ntshona in the production of this funny and fascinating drama.
The play’s 1975 Broadway run earned Kani and Ntshona the Best Actor Award and it took The London Theatre Critics’ award for best play of 1974.
I saw it at the Royal Court in 1975 and was again moved and inspired today by these two fine actors coming together in this brilliant piece of work.
Sizwe Banzi (Ntshona) is a migrant worker in 1970s South Africa and as the drama of his struggle to find work unfolds we see the obscenity of life for black South Africans. At that time, a pass book dominated their existence.
Sizwe is searching for a job to support his family, but for a black to work and travel a valid ‘dum-book’ was essential and had to be produced immediately at the demand of a policeman. Sizwe’s was out of date.
We see Sizwe so desperate that at the urging of Buntu, a new-found friend, he agrees to steal the identity of a dead man they find in the street. Taking on the dead man’s identity is his only chance of getting work.
Ntshona’s wonderful performance makes us feel Sizwe’s indignation and fear of losing his name and his identity as a husband, a father and a human being.
Until April 4
020 74523000
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