On Wednesday 15 June 2022, I had the privilege of attending a production of Kunene and the King by John Kani, directed by Janice Honeyman starring John Kani and Michael Richard, performed at the Joburg Theatre. This is a play set in South Africa in 2019, about white classical actor Jack Morris with liver cancer who has discharged himself from hospital on condition that a caretaker comes and lives with him. In comes Lunga Kunene, a man from a very a different walk of life, and certainly not who Jack is expecting. At first, it seems like these men have nothing in common, but as the story unfolds, we see similarities and differences between these men, and the connection that they form because of it. They find that they have a shared passion for Shakespeare, and it is in the scenes where they talk about Shakespeare where the two men seem the closest.
This play was written by South African actor, activist, and playwright John Kani. This play takes serious, mature themes and presents them in a funny, refreshing way. It details and unpacks the racial political and social complex reality of modern South Africa. It was originally performed in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2019 before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in London. A co-production with the Fugard Theatre, it was directed by Janice Honeyman with incredible performances from Antony Sher and John Kani.
In this performance, Richard was able to capture the testiness and insecurity of an old actor plagued by illness, as well as a sense of Lear-like moral awakening by the end of the play. Kani is outstanding in portraying dignified tolerance but uncovers a deep anger and resentment at the cruelty and injustice of the apartheid regime, and the inequalities that still plague South African life. He perfectly portrays a man whose overall outwardly goodness and dignity mask an anger for the injustices all that he experienced. Their performance is witty, beautiful, and tender, and everyone in the theatre was able to experience the intricacies of the story it with them. This is a play rich in humanity and rich in experience, a trademark of South African theatre.
South African theatre has a unique ability to capture parts of history in its plays and tell real stories about the injustices of the apartheid regime. South African theatre features a specific type of theatre called protest theatre which are plays that are devised out of anger, urgency, or concern about a pertinent issue. They often highlight a social or political injustice, deliberately showing evils that exist. During apartheid, being a black person just living was a political statement, so theatre needed to be about life, their voices needed to be heard. John Kani is known to be an anti-apartheid theatre practitioner and wrote and acted in plays that were not allowed to be performed during the Apartheid regime. Understanding this socio-political context is key to get a sense of the risk displayed in his earlier works. (International Schools Theatre Association, 2022)
The 16th of June is Youth Day in South Africa, a day that commemorates the Soweto youth uprising of 1976. Through the laws of Bantu Education, students were forced to learn in Afrikaans regardless of what their home language was. On June 16th, 1976, students mobilised supported by the Black Conciseness Movement to peacefully protest Bantu education laws. The students were met by heavily armed police who opened fire on the students. (Gov.za, 2022) In the play, Kani talks of being a nurse at Baragwanath Hospital and the endless stream of people pouring in seeking medical attention for three whole days after the massacre. Kani speaks of being a nursing sister and having to perform surgery and medical procedures that he was not trained for. Hearing all this the day before Youth Day was really moving, and something that I thought about for the rest of the night and into Youth Day and I believe that it really changed the way that I view this important historical day. (Kani, 2019)
Kani (2020) honours Youth Day through this play, a sentiment that he expressed in a drama
workshop that I attended in 2020 where he said: ‘I honour the things to which honour belongs’, an adaption of the quote from Antigone – I honoured those things to which honour belongs – reinforcing that memory is critical and when memory is lost, culture and history are lost. Without these, one cannot move forward. Kani (2020) talks about the importance of honesty, and how only when we tell the truth are we vulnerable. He goes on to mention that we must know and acknowledge our own strengths and weaknesses and ‘access your own library (life) of emotions’.
At the same workshop, Kani (2020) expressed that the plays that he creates are not protest plays or political plays, but rather they are stories. As political as his earlier plays were and as political as Kunene and the King is, there is an honesty in the story that has nothing to do with politics. It is a story about one man looking after the other, bonding over literature. These are human stories about human rights violations during apartheid and human physical problems, in this case cancer.
This production was so powerful, because we got a deeper insight into the old South Africa, contrasted with the new South Africa. We can see through this play that ‘something here is happening that concerns me’ and that while the South Africa of today is better than the old South Arica, there are stains that remain from the old way of life (Kani, 2019). In the play, Lunga Kunene still lives in Soweto, a township that is as run down as it was 30 years ago, while Jack Morris lives in a neat white suburb. However, Jack reminisces about a life of privilege and talks disdainfully about ‘your people’. Kunene recalls and recounts the years and years of white oppression and asks when the long-promised ‘better future’ will arrive. We can see the truth in this, and while truth is expressed, reconciliation is still difficult.
Kani has an unbelievable skill of incorporating classic drama in his plays. In his play The Island, devised by Fugard, Kani and Ntshona (1973), they incorporate the Ancient Greek play Antigone into the text, relating the story of Antigone to the story that they are trying to tell of Robben Island. So too, in Kunene and the King (Kani, 2019), Kunene and Morris relate over Shakespeare, specifically Julius Caesar, and then later on King Lear. Even through the incorporation of this we are able to see the differences between the two men, with Kunene having studied Julius Caesar in isiXhosa in school, (it being the only Shakespeare play that was not banned during apartheid because it demonstrated the fate of conspirators) and Morris having played the title role. Additionally, just as The Island (1973) drew parallels to the story of Antigone, so too did Kunene and the King draw parallels to King Lear with the implication that through profound suffering comes enlightenment. We can also see Lear-like qualities in through Jack Morris’s character through his decisions that are not always clearly thought out and his brashness.
I went to this play with Wendy Kaplan-Lewis, woman who is like a grandmother to me, and it was very interesting going with someone three generations older than me as she lived through apartheid and remembers the Soweto Uprising like it was yesterday. It gave me a different perspective to the play, as because I am close to her, it gave me a personal insight into what Kani was speaking about. This essentially is the aim of all protest theatre – for one to be able to relate to the content being shown and bring about change in our own lives.
Overall, going with Wendy was an interesting experience. There were jokes that she laughed
at, and I did not, ones that I laughed at that she did not, and ones that we laughed at together.
I thoroughly enjoyed this production. I felt that it is a production for people of all ages, for people who lived through apartheid and are now interested in bringing about change, as well as people who are interested in learning about the past and how it affects the present and the future. I walked out of the theatre with Wendy, and all that we could talk about was how it was a privilege to have seen John Kani perform as he truly is a remarkable theatre practitioner. Watching this play gave me a new insight into Youth Day, and I will always carry this story with me. Having the opportunity of seeing this production was a privilege and the opportunity of a lifetime, and I am incredibly grateful for this experience.
In The Island (Fugard, Kani & Ntshona, 1973), the character of John exclaims ‘but who cares about that as long as they laugh in the beginning and listen at the end. That’s all we want them to do ... listen at the end!’ This quote applied to Kunene and the King perfectly, we laughed at the beginning, and we listened at the end.
References:
Fugard, A., Kani, J. and Ntshona, W. 1973. The Island. [play script]. Oxford University
Press, Cape Town.
Gov.za. 2022. Youth Day 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.za/YouthDay2022
[Accessed 20 June 2022].
International Schools Theatre Association. 2022. South African Protest Theatre. [online]
available at: https://ista.co.uk/scene/south-african-protest-theatre/ [Accessed 23 June 2022].
Kani, J. 2019. Kunene and the King. [Play script]. Johannesburg: Johnathan Ball Publishers
SA.
Kani, J. 2020. Drama Revision Workshop. 24 September 2020. Johannesburg, South Africa:
St. Johns College.
Whatsonstage.com. 2022. Review: Kunene and the King, 30 January 2020. [online] Available at: https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/reviews/kunene-and-the-king-john-kani-antony-sher_50796.html [Accessed 24 June 2022].