Sizwe Bansi is Dead

by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. (The second name is also spelled Banzi and linguistically the latter is apparently the correct usage, though conventional usage has become “Bansi”.) An enormously influential workshopped play about a man (Sizwe) who takes on the identity of a dead man (Robert Zwelenzima), in order to circumvent the apartheid strictures and obtain work. Based on a photograph Fugard had seen and the experiences and recollections of Kani and Ntshona.

The original text

First performed for one Sunday night on October 15th 1972 at The Space (Cape Town), directed by Fugard and performed by Kani and Ntshona. Lighting by Brian Astbury and stage management by Bee Berman.

Published in Statements : two workshop productions devised by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona. Oxford University Press, 1974.

Performance history in South Africa

1972: Devised and performed at the ** directed by Athol Fugard, with Winston Ntshona and John Kani.

1982: Performed in the Baxter Theatre in 1982, directed by Athol Fugard, with Winston Ntshona and John Kani.

1989: Presented by Little Theatre Tours at The Playroom, Cape Town, directed by Damon Galgut from 4 to 9 December starring Linda Mpondo (Styles/Buntu) and Christopher Gxalaba (Sizwe Banzi). Stage manager Safoora Cassiem.

2015: Performed at the Baxter Theatre from 19 August to 12 September, directed by John Kani with Atandwa Kani and Mncedisi Shabangu

Performances outside South Africa

In 1972, Fugard directed the play's world premiere in Cape Town, followed the next year by a staging at London's Royal Court Theatre which transferred to the Ambassadors, with Kani as Styles and Buntu and Ntshona as Robert/Sizwe. There, it won The London Theatre Critics award. After six previews, the Broadway production, presented in repertory with The Island, opened on 13 November 1974 at the Edison Theatre, where it ran for 159 performances. Kani and Ntshona jointly won Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play for their performances in both Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island.[citation needed] They reunited for the production staged at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2007.[3] That year the play was translated into French as Sizwe Banzi est mort by Marie-Hélène Estienne for a version staged by Peter Brook at the Barbican Centre and the Festival d'Avignon. For its first Middle Eastern production, the play was staged at The Mousetrap Theatre, at the New English School, in Jabriya, a popular suburb of Kuwait, with Abdalla Ali as Sizwe/Robert, Charbel Rached as Styles, and Mohamed Mostafa as Buntu.

Revivals

Sources

Astbury, 1979.

Sizwe Banzi is Dead theatre programme, 1989.

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