The Hungry Earth

by Isaiah Maishe Maponya. A full length play about the mine-workers and their struggle against oppression under Apartheid. Drawing much on the structure of Brecht’s The Measures Taken, it presents a powerful ‘lecture-demonstration’ of black working-class life in South Africa. Written in 1979 and produced at the Donaldson Orlando Cultural Club in Soweto in May then in the Wits Box.

In 1982 the play was presented as a Baxter Theatre Production, directed by Maponya, starring Sydwell Yola, Simon Mosikile, Velile Nxazonke. (Source: Barrow, Brian & Williams-Short, Yvonne (eds.). 1988. Theatre Alive! The Baxter Story 1977-1987).

Presented at the National Theatre London under the direction of Ian Steadman in 1983, later touring Britain and Germany. First published by Polyptoton (London) in 1981, first collected in Temple Hauptfleisch and Ian Steadman: South African Theatre – Four Plays and an Introduction (HAUM Educational, 1984). Later also publised in a variety of other collections. Also published in Postcolonial Plays (Routledge); South African Plays (Nick Hern Books); Doing Plays for a Change (Wits University Press).

Return to H

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to Main Page