Your Loving Simon

From ESAT
Revision as of 15:41, 4 March 2024 by Karina2 (talk | contribs) (→‎Sources)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Two-man play workshopped and directed by Robert Coleman (2003). Published in S.A. Gay Plays 2: an anthology of plays 1994–2013 compiled by Robin Malan (2013).

Subject

A dramatized biographical portrait of Simon Nkoli (freedom fighter, political prisoner, human rights and gay activist; 1957-1998), who died of an AIDS-related illness at 40.

The play was inspired by the GALA collection of letters Nkoli had written from prison to his lover "Roy", and was workshopped, written and directed by Robert Coleman as a two-hander. The text explores Nkoli's life, first as an oft-imprisoned student activist, then as one of the famous 22 Delmas treason trialists (the notorious trial that lasted from 1985 to 1988) and also as co-founder of GLOW (Gays & Lesbians of the Witwatersrand) in 1988. The main focus of the play is on the tension between Nkoli’s dual roles as an anti-apartheid political activist, on the one hand, and as a black gay man who found out in prison that he was HIV positive, on the other.

[JvH]

(For more on Simon Nkoli, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Nkoli)

Performance history in South Africa

First performed at The Market Theatre in April 2003, directed by Robert Coleman, with Fourie Nyamande as Simon Nkoli and Bheki Vilakazi as Madoda Mvelazi .

Translations and adaptations

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Nkoli

Ruphin Coudyzer. 2023. Annotated list of his photographs of Market Theatre productions. (Provided by Coudyzer)

Sichel, 2003a

Greig, 2003a

Van Heerden, 2008[1].p. 176.

The Star, 8 April 2003.

Mail & Guardian, 10 April 2003.

Sunday Independent, 20 April 2003.

The Star, 22 April 2003.

The Citizen, 1 May 2003.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Return to

Return to ESAT Templates

Return to Y in Plays I Original SA Plays

Return to Y in Plays III Collections

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page