Woza Albert!

Woza Albert! ("Arise, Albert!") is an improvised political play by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon.

The original text

A full length play devised and improvised by Mtwa and Ngema, who had formed The Earth Players to do so, and refined under the facilitating direction of Simon, whom they had invited to help.

The text tells the story of how Christ ("Morena") visits apartheid South Africa, where he is introduced to the lives of ordinary people under the system, and does so by means of powerful mimicry and multiple characterizations by the two performers. In many ways the prototype for, and still one of the very best and most popular, examples of the new improvisational political theatre of the 1980s. An iconic political work, it was not only controversial, but influenced the nature of political theatre-making and the style and careers of a large number of writers and performers, and set up the careers of Mtwa and particularly Ngema as writer/theatre-makers.

The play has been a prescribed work for study at school and university since the late 1980s.

Productions

First production

1981: Produced by the Earth Players, it opened at the Market Theatre on 25 March 1981, produced directed by Barney Simon, with Percy Mtwa, and Mbongeni Ngema. Lighting by Mannie Manim, production manager Patrick Miller and stage manager Dixon Malele.

the play toured extensively in the country and abroad.

Revivals and other productions

The play has often been revived, and adapted in various ways.

1983: Presented at the Criterion Theatre in London by Terence Frisby, where it won the London City Limits Best Play of the Year Award, then taken to Broadway and other parts of the world. [a Tony Award in New York **??].

1984-1985: Directed by Barney Simon at the Baxter Concert Hall, presented by the Market Theatre Company starring Percy Mtwa and Mbongeni Ngema, replaced by Sello Maake ka Ncube and Louis Seboko in a 1986 revival..

1996: Directed by Bo Petersen, with Zwelibanzi Majola and Zolani Cata, in the Studio at the Baxter Theatre.

2001: Staged at the 25-year anniversary of the Market Theatre, directed by Sello Maake ka Ncube, with Siyabonga Twala and Tony Kgoroge for the opening performance and thereafter with Mfana Jones Hlope and Errol Ndotho.

2012: Directed by Prince Lamla, with Mncedisi Baldwin Shabangu and Hamilton Ntokozo Dlamini at the Market Theatre, followed by a month-long season at the Edinburgh Festival 2012.

2014: A production by the University of Kwazulu-Natal's Hexagon Theatre, directed by Peter Mitchell, with T.Q. Zondi and Mpilo Nzimande. Also done at Seabrooke's Theatre, DHS

2016: Produced by the Joburg Theatre, by arrangement with DALRO (Pty) Limited, in The Fringe at Joburg Theatre, directed by with Mncedisi Shabangu and Hamilton Dhlamini .

Publication

First published 1983 by Methuen and has since become and one of the most anthologised and produced of all South African plays. . Published by Methuen and also in Woza Afrika! by George Braziller.

Sources

Pat Schwartz. 1988. The Best of Company. Johannesburg: Ad Donker: pp. 100-102.

Percy Tucker, 1997. Just the Ticket. My 50 Years in Show Business. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press: pp. 402, 442.

"Woza Albert! at Seabrooke's in Durban", Artslink.co.za News, 04/04/2014[1]

"Joburg Theatre presents Woza Albert!", Artslink.co.za News, 01/07/2016 [2]

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