Stand in the Sun

Stand in the Sun is a play by John Hunt (1954-)

Subject

In textual form the play is a traditional, realist, three-hander, in which 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, who runs out of petrol in the ghetto and therefore has to walk through it every day. They all 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.

However, the original production was conceived to turn it into a unique experience, one which had two different casts performing 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.

Performance history in South Africa

1999: Premièred in April , directed by Barbara Rubin, with two different casts simultaneously in two different venues; in the Alexan Kopano Community Centre in Alexandra with Owen Sejake, Ronnie Nyakale and Robert Hobbs and in the Agfa Theatre on the Square in Sandton, with Patrick Ndlovu, Anthony Bishop and Hugh Masebenza. Monique Garden as costume designer and props buyer, Nadya Cohen as set designer, and Declan Randall as lighting designer.

Sources

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

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

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