Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, with Tony Winners Kani and Ntshona, Begins BAM Run April 8

By Adam Hetrick
April 8, 2008

John Kani and Winston Ntshona return to their Tony Award-winning roles in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's mounting of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, which begins performances April 8.

Aubrey Sekhabi stages the 90-minute production that was revived in 2006 for the Baxter Theatre Centre at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa, and subsequently transferred to London's National Lyttelton Theatre in March 2007.

The production reunites Kani and Ntshona, who earned Tony Awards for their work in the 1974 Broadway production of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead. The limited engagement runs through April 19.

The 1972 work – penned by Anthol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona — "tells the story of a man ordered to leave a district because he lacks the proper permit," according to production notes. "He trades his name for a number and begins life as a dead man, wreaking havoc with his identity and sense of right and wrong. Delicately balancing humor and pathos, the work offers both a psychological history of the apartheid nightmare and timeless parables of the dehumanizing paradoxes of power."

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead features lighting design by Mannie Manim.

A BAMdialogue with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, moderated by Anne Cattaneo, will follow the April 10 performance. The event is free for those with tickets to that performance of Sizwe Banzi Is Dead.

Tickets to Sizwe Banzi Is Dead are available by calling (718) 636-4100 or by visiting www.BAM.org.