Stand in the Sun

by John Hunt (1999). Full-length drama.

Subject

Two men from Alexandra township represent the general difference between the old-South Africa township dweller on the one hand and the new South Africa flashy, get-rich-quick, township yuppie on the other. The third character is a working-class white Afrikaner male. They meet by chance at a crossroads in Alex and the ensuing interaction explores their experience of the new South Africa, their place in it and the fact that the differences that separated groups in the old South Africa have not all disappeared in the new.

Performance history in South Africa

Premièred in April 1999, directed by Barbara Rubin, with two different casts, in the Alexan Kopano Community Theatre in Alexandra with Owen Sejake, Ronnie Nyakale and Robert Hobbs and, simultaneously in the Agfa Theatre on the Square in Sandton, with Patrick Ndlovu, Anthony Bishop and Hugh Masebenza.

The play was quite ordinary, but what made the production extraordinary, given its central focus on separate social groups that existed in the old and persisted in the new South Africa, was its staging. John Hunt, playwright, but primarily known as an innovative creative adman and co-founder of TBWA Hunt Lascaris, built the concept into the production of staging the piece in two very specifically selected venues at the same time. This resulted in more than a traditional production, but an original kind of happening. The première production opened with two different casts simultaneously in two different theatres, one in Alexandra township and the other in Sandton, Johannesburg. Audience members attending either venue were given the opportunity to be bussed to the other. Theatre-goers could be transported from the low-income all-black Alexandra township to join the audience in the traditionally upper-income white Theatre on the Square, while Sandton theatre-goers could be bussed (under police escort) into the heart of Alexandra to join the audience there. This arrangement continued for the duration of the play’s run.

Sources

[Van Heerden (2008)][1]. p 161.

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