Born in the RSA

by Barney Simon and cast. A multilingual, workshopped play (styled a “docudrama”) about a cross-section of characters living in South Africa during the 1980s state of emergency and the height of the final struggle between the oppositional forces and the Apartheid government. The play presents the audience with their various testimonies – both personal and societal or national – and the resulting contacts and conflicts with the South African context of the 1980s.

The original text

First performed at The Market Theatre 18 September 1985, first published D. Ndlovu (ed) Woza Afrika! An anthology of South African Plays (Braziller, 1986), then later in also in Kani More Market Plays (Ad Donker, 1996) and in Simon et al: Born in the RSA - Four Workshopped Plays (Witwatersrand University Press, 1997).

Performance history in South Africa

Born in the RSA by Barney Simon, in collaboration with his cast which included Fiona Ramsay (Mia), Vanessa Cooke (Susan), Timmy Kwebulana (Zack), Gcina Mhlope (Sindiswa), Terry Norton (Nikki), Thoko Ntshinga and Neil McCarthy (Glen) wrote this play which opened at The Upstairs at the Market in August 1985 before moving to the main theatre. It was performed at the Baxter Theatre in 1986. Set design by Sarah Roberts, lighting design by Mannie Manim.

AfricaWide database: Born in the RSA: a docu-drama: contact sheets of the cast in the American production of the play by Barney Simon and Vanessa Cooke, Timmy Kewbulana, Neil McCarthy, Gcina Mhlope, Terry Norton, Thoko Ntshinga, and Fiona Ramsay, directed by Barney Simon for the Market Theatre in [1986], including Neil McCarthy, Vanessa Cooke and Erica Rogers amongst others

Sources

Born in the RSA theatre programme, 1985.

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