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The Avignon Festival 2006 - A Personal Encounter (Part III)Reviews (2)Jacqueline Fletcher visits the 60th Avignon FestivalDateline: 6th August, 2006The more I see at the festival, and the more I reflect on the shows sitting in the park the next day, the more I see the correspondences that link many of the pieces programmed. Sizwe Banzi est Mort This South African play dates from the '70s and is a fine example of 'Township Theatre'. Ostensibly it is concerned with apartheid and when Brook was asked why he thought it was relevant to the early 21st he had the following answer ready:
Sizwe's problem is one faced by many migrant works, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. One of the hottest issues in France at the moment is the deportation of French Algerians who are referred to as sans papiers (without papers). Sizwe was born in Williamstown where he has a wife and children but no employment. Like many black South Africans of the time he simply wanted to feed and clothe his family, send his children to school and hope they would have a better future. He travels to another township where there is work, but without the necessary papers he cannot live there. He is forced to attempt to change his status illegally by taking the papers from a corpse. To do this he has to renounce his own identity, his family, his community and his entire history. The play is a typical piece of 'township theatre': dynamic, engaging and very funny. It acquires its immediacy from its direct address to the audience. Habib Dembélé is wonderful as the naïve, honest and gullible Sizwe. Pitcho Womba Konga's versatile energy brings several characters to life. His main character Styles, with his cheeky banter, serves as intermediary with the audience. He is the witty servant from the commedia tradition, acting out scenes from his daily life with mime and buffoonery, making us laugh at the boss (in this case the floor manager of the factory where he works on a production line) and identify with his predicament. Brook's direction is reminiscent of his other South African piece, Le Costume. The 'empty space' can be transformed, with the use of 'found objects' into a variety of locations, factories, streets, domestic rooms, a photographer's studio. It is a theatre that relies on the participation of the audience; on engagement with the imagination. And it is very reminiscent of Brecht's political theatre. Essentially, it works as a play because it is play: play as games between actor and actor, the actor and the audience. It is a form of theatre deeply imbedded in Brook's theories and work. It is, according to Brook, something common to theatre in the townships, Elizabethan theatre and Brecht's Epic theatre. It is a game which engages with the 'real':
This is a statement that sums up the performance of Sizwe Banzi est Mort. Even though the subject is dark, it stays with you because of the pleasure you have shared with actors and audience alike. It is interesting to note that in the French language one doesn't 'see' a show (voir) or 'attend' a performance, one 'assists at' a performance (assister à). Implicit in this semantic variation is the recognition that the audience has a part to play. Rather than being a passive recipient, the audience shares in the event, is the co-author of meaning, the fourth participant alongside the actors, directors and playwrights. 1. Peter Brook, interview with Jean-Françoise
Perrier for the programme notes, February 2006 >> Next page
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