(Zoey Martinson,
Jonathan David Martin & Yusef Miller)
Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative, in association with The
Playhouse Company, presents the award-winning new production, Ndebele Funeral, in The Playhouse Loft for
four performances from tonight (July 16)
The widely acclaimed
three-hander comes to The Playhouse stage straight from off-Broadway, New York,
and The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Written by Zoey Martinson and directed by Awoye Timpo, Ndebele Funeral is performed by Jonathan
David Martin (Bway: War Horse -
Lincoln Centre, Leonore Annenberg Foundation Fellowship for the Arts), Zoey
Martinson (The Public, Shakespeare in the Park, TBS Sitcom: Are We There Yet) and Yusef Miller
(Classic Stage Company, Lila Acheson Wallace Playwright Fellow). Ndebele Funeral is based on a short play
by Ivan Suazo.
Set in Soweto, South Africa, Ndebele Funeral asks, what do you do when your resources are few
and your life a ticking clock? Build your own coffin and claim your dignity?
Daweti, a college graduate living with HIV, exiles herself from her friends and
family, and uses government supplies to set about doing just that.
Using music, dance and the sounds of Soweto, Ndebele Funeral asks - do you have the
right to choose your own death? How does religion and culture own your
morality? Heart-breaking and hilarious, the play centres on the emotional
resolve of Daweti, a college graduate whose controversial decision to end her
life has moving repercussions for her devoted friend, Thabo. As aspirations and
disappointments surface inside Daweti’s tiny shack, the play explores issues of
poverty, religion, distribution of wealth, politics and health care in modern
South Africa.
Zoey Martinson wrote Ndebele
Funeral after working as a humanitarian aid worker at a refugee camp in
West Africa and then travelled to South Africa to interview people living in
the informal settlements around Soweto.
New York based Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative was founded
by Zoey Martinson and Jonathan David Martin over a shared passion for creating
art around social justice issues.
Ndebele Funeral will
move on to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. It was the winner of
the Overall Excellent Award for Best Play at Fringe NYC in 2013
Production credits include choreography by
Sduduzo Ka-Mbili and Cuereston Burge, original music by Spirits Indigenous and
Tuelo Minah, and musical direction by Tuelo Minah. Lighting design is by Justin
W King, and the production’s lighting associate is Wilhelm Disbergen. Costume
design is by Lara de Bruijn. John Emmett O’Brien is the sound designer and
Josephine Ronga is the production’s stage manager. Ndumiso Khovana serves as
dramaturge.
Ndebele Funeral
runs in the Playhouse Loft from July 16 to 19 with performances from Thursday
to Saturday of at 19h00, with a matinee on July 19 at 15h00. The duration of
the show is 75 minutes. Tickets R60 (R20 students and pensioners). Book at
Computicket 0861 915 9000 or online at www.computicket.com
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