From Sizwe Banzi is Dead
It was hard for a black man to move around in apartheid-era South Africa — it was hard to do a lot of things. It was hard to get a job, it was hard to raise a family, it was hard to maintain some dignity. When Sizwe Banzi was kicked out of Port Elizabeth for having an incorrect stamp in his passbook, it all got harder. How was he supposed to care for his family when he was forced to stay in a township with no work? When he and his friend Buntu came across the dead body of Robert — who had a correctly stamped passbook — assuming his identity was the only choice. Robert lives, and Sizwe Banzi is dead.
Directed by the world-renowned Peter Brook, Sizwe Banzi is Dead is an uncomfortable look at South African apartheid, posing some universally resonant questions about the fickleness of identity. The play's development can be traced along with writer Athol Fugard's time as a legal clerk at the Native Commissioner's court in Johannesburg. When he originally staged the play for native Afrikaners, they would yell “Go on! Do it!” when Banzi struggled with the decision to effectively “die” in order to have the correct papers. Written mostly in English, the play was translated to French by Marie-Helene Estienne, who has worked very closely with Brook for the past three decades. When it's staged in Calgary by Theatre Junction, it will be presented in French with English subtitles.
“The play is (written) mainly in English with some Afrikaans thrown in,” says Estienne. “I don't think the language is so important. The actors are French-speaking Africans — they can't do it in English, and it's now their story. What matters is the play itself and the men who do it.”
While working as a clerk, Fugard saw a photo of a smiling black man with a cane and pipe and thought that it might be a representation of a dream. Using minimalist staging and props, the production is true to the surrealism present in the script, even reflecting absurdist elements at times. Brook has explicitly worked within an absurdist tradition in the past, but also — more relevantly — within Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty.
Though the name is striking, Artaud's conventions weren't so sinister. The Theatre of Cruelty simply suggested that theatre should be used to reveal a truth to the audience that it may not want to know. In a play about apartheid, a better fit couldn't be found.
“Artaud is a very special case — very moving but very much on his own,” says Estienne. “As I said, it's now a different story — but terribly factual. There are so many people in the world without the correct papers, wanting only to be a man. As Sizwe says: What do they have that I don't have? I have eyes to see, ears to hear, legs to walk."
Disturbing, moving and haunting, Sizwe Banzi is Dead has met with rave reviews wherever Brook and Estienne have brought it, regardless of the audience’s native language. Ultimately, it's this sort of outlook on deconstruction and evolution that drives Brook's shows.
“That is the joy of it,” says Estienne. “It is a sort of rebirth in new conditions. Something is lost (in the translation), of course, but something is found. If a play is good, it can be adapted and the language — which is very important — can find another way of expression. It crosses all the barriers of fear and respect.”
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