"A comic, touching, but fiercely political work about the impossibility of life under apartheid...Catch this piece of theatrical and political history while you can."
—The Independent (UK)

Read the reviews in The New York Times, Variety, TheaterMania, The New York Sun, NY1, nytheatre, CurtainUp, and EDGE.

Listen to actors/co-creators John Kani and Winston Ntshona on The Leonard Lopate Show.

SIZWE BANZI IS DEAD

• THE BAXTER THEATRE CENTRE
• BY ATHOL FUGARD, JOHN KANI, AND WINSTON NTSHONA
• DIRECTED BY AUBREY SEKHABI

Apr 8, 10—12, 15—19 at 7:30pm
Apr 13 at 3pm

BAM Harvey Theater
Running Time: 90min, no intermission

This engagement marks the final performances of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead by actors/co-creators John Kani and Winston Ntshona.

When South African actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona first put on Sizwe Banzi Is Dead in Cape Town in 1972, it was an act of artistic daring and personal bravery from two black men defying the rules of apartheid. Delicately balancing humor and pathos, this critically acclaimed production offers a timeless parable of the dehumanizing paradoxes of power. Ordered to leave a district because he lacks the proper permit, Sizwe trades his name for a number and begins life as a dead man, wreaking havoc with his identity and sense of right and wrong.

Undeterred by their arrest for performing Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Kani and Ntshona staged the epic The Island (performed at BAM in Spring 2003), a revelatory work set in the infamous Robben Island prison. Created with Afrikaner director Athol Fugard, the plays garnered the performers a Tony award and international recognition for their deeply nuanced portrayal of humanity that persists in spite of travel bans and iron bars.

Lighting design by Mannie Manim

Photo of John Kani and Winston Ntshona by Harold Gess