My Life

My Life is a play workshopped under the guidance of Athol Fugard, based on contributions by the original cast, Sivagamy Govender, Riana Jacobs, Heather Leite, Reshoketswe Maredi and Elleanor Busi Mthumunye.

Originally sub-titled "An Allegory for Reconciliation" for its premiere.

The original text

Created in 1994, the year of the birth of the new democratic South Africa, the workshopped play draws on images and stories from the personal biographies of the five young women, and is staged within the framework of an aerobics class. The perspective of each young woman on her country and her people is conveyed with a mixture of innocence and humour.

This was Fugard's first production in the new South Africa Fugard and for it he went back to the workshop method he had used so well decades earlier with the Serpent Players in Port Elizabeth, which resulted in milestone productions such as The Island (1973), developed with John Kani and Winston Ntshona.

He used inexperienced actors to develop My Life, bringing together five young South African women, ages ranging from 15 to 21, from across the racial spectrum. He facilitated the documentation of each one’s personal experiences during the final days of apartheid and the first days of democracy. With director Rebecca Waddell, he then developed their “journals” into a stage presentation with each of the five girls narrating her own story. In an interview with The Star Fugard described the aim of the project in simple and direct terms: “...to reflect and celebrate the cultural diversity and contrasts of our South African reality” (Sichel, 1994).

The text was first published in My Life & Valley Song. Johannesburg, Hodder and Stoughton/Wits University Press, 1996.

Performance history in South Africa

1994: Premièred in the Tesson Theatre at the Johannesburg Civic in June, using the sub-title “An allegory for Reconciliation”, directed by Rebecca Waddell, with Elleanor Busi Mthimunye, Reshoketswe Maredi, Heather Leite, Riana Jacobs and Sivagamy Govender. The same production was staged at the Grahamstown Festival in July of the same year.

Translations and adaptations

Sources

Johann van Heerden. 2008. Theatre in a New Democracy. Some major trends in South African theatre from 1994 to 2003 Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Stellenbosch.[1]. p 95.

Photograph by Basil Mills of the original cast of My life, held by NELM: Photograph collection [Collection: FUGARD, Athol]: 2016. 68. 20.

Transcript of recorded interview by Veronica Bowker with the cast of My life: NELM Location: THE 822. 3 FUG.

Playscript [Typescript (photocopy)] - Accompanied by a note from the author to Malcolm Hacksley, and notes by Rebecca Waddell, Fugard's Assistant Director held by NELM Location: [Collection: FUGARD, Athol]: 1996. 23. 1.

Published text in My Life & Valley Song. Johannesburg, Hodder and Stoughton/Wits University Press, 1996.

Go to ESAT Bibliography