The Island

The Island [1] is a 1973 play by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. A workshopped play about two prisoners on Robben Island, who explore life in prison and notions of freedom and identity as they put on a performance of Antigone. (Based on the experiences of Norman Ntshinga and an actual production of Antigone featuring Nelson Mandela as Creon.)

Performance history in South Africa

First performed (as Die Hodoshe Span) at The Space (Cape Town) July 1973, renamed The Island for subsequent productions. The play traveled extensively abroad and was very successful. Returned to also be performed in the Market Theatre and the Baxter Theatre (first performance there 12 March 1980).

Presented by SATO in 1983 under the direction of Dawie Malan, starring Leslie Fong as Winston and Kurt Egelhof as John. This production toured the country from 3 February to 23 April 1983.

Revived a number of times since, i.a. by Barney Simon (Market Theatre and Grahamstown Festival, 1995), with John Kani and Winston Ntshona. A notable revival was at the National Theatre, London in 2000 with the original cast (and Nelson Mandela in the audience).

In 2001 a revival with the original cast, was staged in Washington after runs in Paris, Stockholm, London (twice) and Toronto (the revival was sparked in 1995 when Mandela requested a performance of the play for an audience of former Robben Island inmates). In 2002 the production returned to London for another run.

In 2013 the Barney Simon Theatre at the Market Theatre did a revival of the play, directed by John Kani, with his son Atandwa Kani and Nat Ramabulana.

First published in Statements : two workshop productions. Oxford University Press, 1974.

Sources

The Island programme, 1985.

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