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Photo / Foto: Pascal Geliy

SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD "A true moment of theatre can only exist in the present - not yesterday, not tomorrow. And there are always people watching. This direct link with the audience is what makes theatre different from all other forms of art. South African township theatre is the most precious example. It is born of life, in the street, in towns unlike any others, in the "Townships", the ghettos of apartheid. It is theatre of a very special nature - what was real in the past touches us just as much today. It is immediate theatre and its superb sense of ridicule shows us all too clearly what was, what is and what lies ahead." Peter Brook TOWNSHIPS THEATRE It was in New Brighton, a township not far from Port Elisabeth, that Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island first saw the light of day. Athol Fugard with his company of black actors "The Serpent Players" had already put on the Caucasian Chalk Circle, Antigone etc .. when two newcomers - John Kani and Winston Ntshona - joined them. "The most stimulating and promising field for a young playwriter in South Africa lay in the life of the black townships; where there were untrained performers capable of achieving an authenticity and vitality never seen before on the South African Stage" wrote Athol Fugard at this time. One can imagine how sceptically this declaration was received. The impact of these plays is even stronger today - history, life itself, has proved them true. "A black man stay out of trouble?" says Sizwe to his friend Buntu, before adding "Impossible! Our skin is trouble!" EXCERPTS FROM SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD "You must understand one thing. We own nothing except ourselves. This world and its laws, allows us nothing, except ourselves. There is nothing we can leave behind when we die, except the memory of ourselves." "What's happening in this world, good people? Who cares for who in this world? Who wants who? Who wants me friend? What's wrong with me? I'm a man. I've got eyes to see. I've got ears to listen when people talk. I've got a head to think good things. What's wrong with me? Look at me! I'm a man. I've got legs. I can run with a wheelbarrow full of cement! I'm strong! I'm a man. I'm circumcised! Yes Madam! Look at this!" PETER BROOK Peter Brook was born in London in 1925. He directed his first play there in 1943. He then went on to direct over 70 productions in London, Paris and New York. His work with the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Love's Labour's Lost (1946), Measure for Measure (1950), Titus Andronicus (1955), King Lear (1962), Marat/Sade (1964), US (1966), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970) and Antony and Cleopatra (1978). In 1971, he founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris and in 1974, opened its permanent base in the Bouffes du Nord Theatre. There, he directed Timon of Athens, The Ik, Übu aux Bouffes, Conference of the Birds, L'Os, The Cherry Orchard, The Mahabharata, Woza Albert!, The Tempest, The Man Who, Qui est là?, Olles Beaux Jours, Je suis un Phénomène, Le Costume, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Far Away, La Mort de Krishna, Ta Main dans la Mienne, Le Grand Inquisiteur and Tierno Bokar- many of these performing both in French and English.