The Barber Shop
The Barber Shop is a wordless farce workshopped by Mncedisi Shabangu and cast.
Contents
The original text
A comic play that explores the often overwhelmingly difficult, but comic experiences, of a street barber, Baba ka Dennis, an immigrant who leaves his rural home to make ends meet in the City of Gold. Not a conventional word is spoken as the improvised piece uses "vluit" (Afrikaans for "whistle"), the unique township form of communication that has its roots in the self-defence units of the once violence-ridden township of Katlehong.
The play was originally developed through improvisation at the Sibikwa Community Theatre and the Market Theatre Laboratory, for The Whistlers Art Project. Directed by Mncedisi Shabangu, with Vusi Mahlangu, Bafana Makhado, Gift Sithole and Thabo Xaba.
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
2000: Staged in March in The Laager at the Market Theatre, directed by Mncedisi Shabangu, with Vusi Mahlangu, Bafana Makhado, Gift Sithole and Thabo Xaba.
Sources
Ruphin Coudyzer. 2023. Annotated list of his photographs of Market Theatre productions. (Provided by Coudyzer)
The Citizen, 30 March 2000.
https://brandsouthafrica.com/109144/news-facts/barbershop-theatre/
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