An African Theater in South Africa

Abstract

Once upon a time in South Africa there was a hefty pugilist nicknamed King Kong and what a splendid fellow he was: first his girl-friend double-crossed him, then plagued by frustrations and with his boxing career at stake, he stabbed her to death. In prison, waiting to be executed for murdering the girl, he committed suicide. This sad tale gave birth to King Kong, the all-African jazz opera which swept across South Africa like a storm in 1959 and later hit newspaper headlines in Britain. Miriam Makeba, the South African folk singer now living in America, took the leading lady role in the original cast of King Kong. The successful production of King Kong by the Union Artists of Southern Africa (a body of theatre lovers, established to foster African theatre) heralded an era in African theatre in the country. King Kong opened in Johannesburg in February, 1959 and was immediately hailed by critics as the first hit in African theatre. Later, the show toured the countryside and by the time it was bought by the Hylton Organisation, who packed it to London, approximately 100,000 people had seen it in South Africa. The success of King Kong in South Africa and in Britain marked a period most significant in African theatre, because it impressed on the Africans that it was high time they wrote and produced their own plays. Before the formation of the Union Artists, several patrons of African theatre had realized that many budding artists were being exploited by unscrupulous producers. The organisation's inauguration helped to protect actors from exploitation by ambitious impressarios, recording companies and persons or groups who were beginning to appreciate African talent and potential in drama. Dorkay House, home of the Union Artists in the heart of Johannesburg, was a blessing in that earlier, Africans had had no suitable place to produce plays. [Dorkay House is currently being forced to move from the center of Johannesburg because of restrictions imposed by the Group Areas Act. No new quarters have yet been found.] They had to be content with rough, makeshift stages that detracted from the atmosphere of the theatre. Dorkay House also enabled African actors to overcome their biggest setback, lack of experienced people to assist in professional productions. For instance, producers like Leon Gluckman, who had long years of professional productions behind them, were able to impart some of their knowledge to the budding African producers. Of course, Dorkay House presented the actors with somewhat of a problem in that it was within the city. Invariably the actors were being harassed by police demanding night passes, as dictated by the country's laws of apartheid. There's a story that says one evening a group of actors were picked up by police and hustled into prison cells for failing to produce their passes. Instead of being disheartened, the actors decided to sing. Their performance was thought to be very good by the police, who later decided to release them and transported them to the townships in police pick-up vans. King Kong went through the expert hands of Leon Gluckman, an international producer, but when the show folded two years later, there sprung up in Dorkay House several other productions like Back in Your Own Backyard, written and produced by Ben Satch Masinga, and Gibson Kente's Manana the Jazz Prophet. Kente's latest show is Sikalo and it is having good reviews in South Africa. At the time Union Artists were brushing up King Kong, another show Nongongo (Prostitutes), written by a wellknown South African playwright, Athol Fugard, now famous for The Blood Knot, was also going through its paces. The show had several shortcomings, but was thought by critics to be a fine attempt at depicting life in the shebeens (speakeasies) in African townships. The lead role of Nongongo was played by Thandi Kumalo, who had now risen from a King Kong chorus girl. Other notable actors who took part in the show were Zakes Mokae, now a celebrated television actor in London, and Sol Rachilo of Johannesburg. When later the show failed to attract many theatregoers, critics wrote it off as being too abstract, although they agreed that it was a fine attempt. Dorkay House's rehearsal room was now recognised as the home of African theatre and more plays followed, including Fugard's The Blood Knot, which has had very satisfying runs in London and on Broadway.