REVIEW: Stunning, Searing SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD Is Theater at Its Finest--and Most Subversive
By Ruth Ross
Okay, I’m going to say it upfront: If you see anything theatrical this Spring, don’t miss Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona’s paean to human dignity, identity and the extraordinary ingenuity of ordinary people navigating an unjust system, now playing at Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick!
The play dramatizes the apartheid system of South Africa, a form of institutionalized racism that ensured segregated facilities, events, employment opportunities, and land apportionment. South African Pass Laws, which aimed to segregate working-class black men, legally obligated every black man to carry a passbook that would limit his employment and travel throughout the country. The laws benefited the white minority in South Africa and caused economic hardship on black South Africans, the effects of which are still prevalent today. Sizwe Banzi Is Dead explores the dehumanizing effects of these laws as it follows a man faced with an impossible choice: disappear under the weight of an oppressive system—or reinvent himself to survive.
Under Ricardo Khan’s masterful direction, Atandwa Kani (John Kani’s son; above, left) gives a superb performance first as Styles, Ford Motors assembly line worker turned photographer, and later as Buntu, Sizwe Banzi’s wise, pragmatic mentor who devises a way for Sizwe to avoid arrest and beat the system. Vivacious, charming, he addresses the audience, making eye contact and inviting us into his world. His re-enactment of the visit of Henry Ford II and his work on the assembly line—complete with sound effects—is amusing but sobering. And as a photographer preserving the identity of his people through his photos, his pride is palpable. Yet, his impassioned speech to Sizwe, so reminiscent of Shylock’s plea in The Merchant of Venice (“Are I not a man?”) and the “I Am a Man” signs carried at the Civil Rights marches in the sixties, really hits home, especially in light of the current gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act!
Kelcey L. Watson’s portrayal of Sizwe Banzi (above, right) is lower key, appropriate to the illiterate, unsophisticated native who’s come from his small village 150 miles away to Port Elizabeth to work and is a sitting duck for the passbook police. The letters he writes home to his wife express his longings and bewilderment about taking on the identity of another man to survive and feed his family. Given his need to destroy his former self to gain access to fundamental human rights, his innocence is sweet and maddening—and understandable.
The action unfolds on a bare stage designed by Beowulf Boritt, dressed with two coat racks, a rolling platform, some chairs and tables, and atmospherically lit by Victor En Yu Tan. Costumes by Mika Eubanks play an integral role in revealing the characters’ personalities and station: Styles’s more casual attire telegraphs his familiarity with the “system” and ability to navigate treacherous waters; Sizwe’s white suit and Stetson hat convey a more formal relationship with his surroundings and setting him up visually as an outsider at first glance.
Sizwe Banzi Is Dead is a story filled with wit, humanity, and resilience, revealing the profound ways Black people have found dignity, humor, and hope even in the harshest circumstances. It’s important that we, as American citizens and theatergoers, remember this as history is being dismantled around us to serve a more nefarious agenda.
Notably, theater audiences are probably familiar with Master Harold…and the Boys, a Fugard play that received Broadway and regional theater productions. Personally, for 20 of the 34 years I taught high school English, my students read and discussed Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton’s novel examining the effect of apartheid on South African citizens—black and white. And the film Sarafina, starring Whoopi Goldberg, was inspired by the real-life 1976 Soweto Uprising when students protested the use of Afrikaans as the language of instruction in South African schools.
Appropriate for upper-grade high school students through senior citizens, Crossroads Theatre Company’s production of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead is drama at its finest: informative, entertaining and, of course, subversive. Don’t miss it before it closes on June 14.
Please purchase tickets at NBPAC New Brunswick Performing Arts Center or contact the NBPAC Box Office at 732-745-8000 (12-5PM Mon, Wed, Fri). The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center is located at 11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.