(Left: “Die
9de Maand” cover)
Robin Malan, founder of the Junkets Publisher
company has announced that for the first time in its nine-year history, the
Zabalaza Theatre Festival at the Baxter Theatre Centre declared two
Joint-Winners of the 2019 Zabalaza Theatre Festival. This has given Junkets the
opportunity to publish two new playscripts, in collaboration with the Baxter
Theatre Centre.
Tyron Zoutman’s play Die 9de Maand is an intriguing exploration of the lives of four
Coloured Male university students who, while friends, are both united and
divided by a very significant secret. Something happened at the graduation
after-party … something they would like to remain a secret but which the world
wants to know.
The major theme of the play is betrayal, of friends by a friend.
Something else the four young men share is the absence of a viable father
figure in their lives.
(Right: “Ukuwa
kweNkaba” cover)
Not altogether surprisingly, that same
theme is at the centre of Mthobisi Mpandle’s play Ukuwa kweNkaba (The Cord).
Father has moved away from his rural family to the city, and connection between
him and his wife and two sons is broken. The community wonders if the second
son Lungile is his father’s son. Where was his umbilical cord buried? This
causes grave anxieties in Lungile’s mind, and he does not seem to be able to
get a clear answer from anyone, least of all his mother. The play ends without
Lungile having found a resolution to his dilemma.
(Left: “Benji”
cover)
The third newly-released playscript from
Junkets is the runner-up in the 2019 SCrIBE Playwriting Competition run by the
Imbewu Trust. This play is Benji by
Terence Makapan. Again, it features fathers and sons, but in a different
context. Young James is a rent boy who responds to an out call, and finds
himself in the home of an older man who has expectations of him very different
from the usual. The interplay between these two characters, each of whom needs
to find a resolution to something in their pasts, results in a striking piece
of theatre.
All three of these plays can be ordered
from Junkets by emailing info.junkets@iafrica.com .
The Winner of the SCrIBE Playwriting
Competition has been published by the author Koleka Putuma in association with
Junkets Publisher. The play’s title is No
Easter Sunday for Queers. Two young lesbian women find themselves in a
head-on collision with the Christian church to which they both belong. The
issue is further complicated by the fact that the pastor of the church is also
the father of one of them.
(Right: “No Easter Sunday for Queers” cover)
Information, pricing and availability of
this play can be obtained from cocoputuma@gmail.com.
Coming soon from Junkets (as soon as the
lockdown is lifted) is the highly anticipated new play from Mike van Graan,
sporting his longest title yet: Little
Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Metaphors.
More information on email:info.junkets@iafrica.com
or visit www.junkets.co.za
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