Last updated on 8 May 2023
The curtain goes down on Dr John Kani’s celebrated play Kunene and the King at the South African State Theatre today 7 May 2023. Yet at the age of 79 years old theatre icon Dr Kani is showing no signs of slowing down as he embarks on a US and Canada tour for the play writes Mogy Mokgadi Mashako
Kani who wrote the play was inspired by an observation of the 25th anniversary of South Africa’s democracy in 2019. The play examines the connotations of being black and challenges the idea that if you are white, you are a racist, by bringing into focus the experiences of two men and their reality in post apartheid South Africa.
“I looked around and asked myself who is celebrating? And what they are celebrating? I spoke to a white friend who listed things that don’t work in the country, and a black person who acknowledged the hell they were experiencing,” Kani said.
These conversations led Kani to write the play, which explores misconceptions about being black or white and racism as a human construct.
The play features a white liberal actor who is dying of cancer and has ordered a nurse from a nursing agency to take care of him ahead of playing King Lear at a Cape Town theatre. The nurse turns out to be a male named Kunene, instead of Sister Kuhn.
The play starts off with this situation where Jack Morris calls the police, as he believes that by virtue of being black, the male nurse in his living room is most likely there to rob or kill him.
Kani is known for his use of humour in his plays, which he believes is essential to keep the audience engaged and to allow them to laugh at themselves or laugh at the pain.
He believes that “a play cannot be doom and gloom because people have enough of that in their daily lives, through news and media”.
While Kani plays Sister Kunene, revered thespian Michael Richard delivered an upstanding performance as Jack Morris, a crabby old actor who is rehearsing for an upcoming Shakespeare play.
The humour in the play serves as a breather to provide a balance to the weighty issues Kani addresses in his play including themes of race, forgiveness, respect, death, alcoholism and escapism.
“There is a lot of mindset change that needs to occur. Jack is white, he is liberal, and really he is not racist. He doesn’t even believe he had to go to the TRC because he has never said anything to anybody but he is as guilty in his silence and complicity, he is as guilty in his language,” expressed Kani.
Kani said he has always found it a peculiar norm that Bantu education almost always prescribed a Shakespeare set work. The same was true in his case in 1959 as a student in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth.
“It [the set work] was Julius Caesar in isiXhosa. And I thought I would bring in this interpretation of a black man or an African man reading Shakespeare, finding him just the same as all other African writers with nothing really special about him,” he said.
Sister Lunga Kunene studied Shakespeare as a student, and evidently this love of Shakespeare forms a bridge that draws him and his patient, Jack Morris closer.
On bagging the Pragnell Shakespeare Birthday Award, Kani shared that it was a humbling experience to receive such an honour from the Shakespeare Institute.
“An award is an affirmation of the work you do and you believe in and what the award says “For making Shakespeare accessible to a broader community” meaning that use of Shakespeare – I have done Shakespeare since the 60s.
“And that made me feel special that I have sort of broken this ground, that the only people that could get the Pragnell Shakespeare award are white people who have studied Shakespeare,” he said.
Due to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s prerequisite of no use of taped or recorded music, Kani and his team had to come up with live music for the play, which resulted in collaboration with Lulu Plaatje.
“I found Lulu who I had met during a season of The Tempest, which she was part of. She wrote the music and plays her own instruments. She worked perfectly because I wanted to bring in some Africanacity- if there is such a word,” Kani said.
Plaatje has been honoured by the Kyknet Lifetime Awards recently for her use of traditional music and instruments. Her music in the play serves as a path that weaves between scene and set changes.
The veteran has had a remarkable career spanning over six decades, and he has been recognized for his contributions to the arts and social justice. He co-wrote and starred in the iconic anti-apartheid play Sizwe Banzi is Dead in the 1970s, which gained worldwide acclaim.
Kani encapsulated his formula for living a long and healthy life by emphasizing the importance of taking care of his “body, mind, and spirit”. He expressed that in his profession as an actor, it is essential to be fully present and prepared at all times
Kunene and the King has received seven Naledi Award (2023) nominations including, Best Original Soundscape, Best New South African Script and Best Sound Design.
The show runs until 7May 2023 at the South African State Theatre in Tshwane before beginning its United States and Canada tour. – news@mukurukuru.co.za
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