Difference between revisions of "The Prophet"
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| − | workshopped by [[Brett Bailey]] and cast (1999). Third in a trilogy of plays ''The Plays of Miracle and Wonder'': ''[[Ipi Zombi?]]'', ''[[iMumbo Jumbo]]'' and ''[[The Prophet]]''. | + | workshopped by [[Brett Bailey]] and cast (1999). Third in a trilogy of plays, ''The Plays of Miracle and Wonder'': ''[[Ipi Zombi?]]'', ''[[iMumbo Jumbo]]'' and ''[[The Prophet]]''. |
== Subject == | == Subject == | ||
Revision as of 13:29, 9 March 2014
workshopped by Brett Bailey and cast (1999). Third in a trilogy of plays, The Plays of Miracle and Wonder: Ipi Zombi?, iMumbo Jumbo and The Prophet.
Contents
Subject
A ritualistic account of a desperate and bizarre event in the history of South Africa: the Xhosa Cattle Killings. In 1856, while the amaXhosa nation was fraying under colonial incursions, an epidemic swept through their cattle herds, decimating the core of their economic, social and spiritual systems. A young Xhosa girl, Nonqgawuse, professed that ancestral spirits had communicated to her that the land and livestock were contaminated by witchcraft, and that the nation should destroy all its herds and crops and prepare for a day of regeneration. On this day the dead would rise to live with the living, the land would be purified and all settlers would be swept into the sea. Nonqgawuse’s prophesies caught the imagination of her people with horrifying consequences. http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za/productions/the-prophet.html
Performance history in South Africa
Written and designed by Brett Bailey, with Abey Xakwe and Ndumi Zweni, premièred on the main programme of the Grahamstown Festival 1999, presented by Third World Bunfight and directed by Brett Bailey. Staged in the round in an old power station in Grahamstown, it included the 15-odd full-time performers of Third World Bunfight, and several children and elderly women singers from Rini.
Translations and adaptations
Sources
Grahamstown Festival Programme, 1999.
http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za/productions/the-prophet.html
See: [Van Heerden (2008)][1]. pp 144-147.
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The Prophet, written, designed and directed by Brett Bailey, presented by Third World Bunfight at the National Arts Festival, 1999. Based on the events following the call to the Xhosa to slaughter their cattle after Nongqawuse's vision in the 1850's.
