Programs Survival

PlayCo and The Africa Center in association with the National Black Theatre are teaming up with South African theatre artists Keenan Tyler Oliphant and Joanna Ruth Evans to produce a reading and inter-generational discussion of Survival, a politically searing and comically irreverent 1976 play by Workshop '71 about the carceral nature of life in apartheid South Africa, and the collective spirit of survival shared amongst the oppressed.

Devised by the company in a highly physical, experimental style under conditions of radical uncertainty and repression, Survival launched amidst the 1976 student uprising in Soweto. This was followed by an explosive California tour which led the cast into exile in the U.S., and a revival in 1990 on the night of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. The event will reunite Fana Kekana and Seth Sibanda, two members of Workshop '71, the first interracial theater company in South Africa, who co-devised and performed the show before the cast's exile from South Africa in 1977, and will include a post-show conversation with the artists, South African community leaders, and the audience facilitated by Jonathan McCrory, National Black Theatre's Executive Artistic Director.

 This event is an opportunity to share this incredible play with a new generation; explore the interconnections between South Africa and the U.S., the radical 70's and the troubled present; and honor the remarkable lives and artistic contributions of Seth Sibanda and Fana Kekana.

Click here to Register.