Stand in the Sun

by John Hunt (1999). Full-length drama.

Subject
John Hunt: "It's about a white guy who runs out of petrol in the ghetto and therefore has to walk through it. It was staged simultaneously in two different venues with two different audiences, each of which reacted differently. One was in the ghetto itself – where the play was set – and the other in the elite part of Johannesburg – where the actor was walking to. The predominantly white audience in the elite venue was sympathetic toward the character lost in the ghetto, while the audience in the ghetto theatre laughed hysterically about this white guy who doesn't know how to work his way through the area."

Two men from Alexandra township represent the general difference between the old-South Africa township dweller on the one hand and the new South Africa flashy, get-rich-quick, township yuppie on the other. The third character is a working-class white Afrikaner male. They meet by chance at a crossroads in Alex and the ensuing interaction explores their experience of the new South Africa, their place in it and the fact that the differences that separated groups in the old South Africa have not all disappeared in the new.

Performance history in South Africa
Premièred in April 1999, directed by Barbara Rubin, with two different casts simultaneously in two different venues; in the Alexan Kopano Community Centre in Alexandra with Owen Sejake, Ronnie Nyakale and Robert Hobbs and in the Agfa Theatre on the Square in Sandton, with Patrick Ndlovu, Anthony Bishop and Hugh Masebenza. Monique Garden as costume designer and props buyer, Nadya Cohen as set designer, and Declan Randall as lighting designer.

The play was a traditional realistic three-hander, but what made the production extraordinary, given its central focus on separate social groups that existed in the old and persisted in the new South Africa, was its staging. John Hunt the playwright, but primarily known as an innovative creative adman and co-founder of TBWA Hunt Lascaris, built the concept into the production of staging the piece in two very specifically selected venues at the same time. This resulted in more than a traditional production, but an original kind of happening. The première production opened with two different casts simultaneously in two different theatres, one in Alexandra township and the other in Sandton, Johannesburg. Audience members attending either venue were given the opportunity to be bussed to the other. Theatre-goers could be transported from the low-income all-black Alexandra township to join the audience in the traditionally upper-income white Theatre on the Square, while Sandton theatre-goers could be bussed (under police escort) into the heart of Alexandra to join the audience there. This arrangement continued for the duration of the play’s run.

Return to
Return to ESAT Templates

Return to S in Plays I Original SA Plays

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page