Antony Sher and John Kani to play Prospero and Caliban in South African Tempest
08 June 2008
A new production of William Shakespeare's magical last play, The Tempest, will open in Cape Town, South Africa at the Baxter Theatre Centre in January 2009. In February 2009 it transfers to the UK for a run at the RSC's Courtyard Theatre, Statford-upon-Avon followed by a UK tour (dates and venues yet to be confirmed).
A co-poduction between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town, this unique Tempest, filled with African ritual, music and dance, will feature a totally South African cast and will be created by three of South Africa's foremost theatrical talents. The director Janice Honeyman (who directed the acclaimed RSC production of Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye in 1988) brings two of the country's most celebrated actors onstage together for the first time, Antony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban.
Baxter brought its production of Hamlet to Stratford in 2006 during the RSC's Complete Works Festival.
Antony Sher said: “The director, Janice Honeyman and I have been discussing this production for several years and I'm thrilled that the RSC is now making it happen, along with the Baxter, which is the leading theatre in CapeTown (my birthplace) and aguably in the whole of South Africa. In Shakespeare's time, witchcraft and magic were part of society, but this is no longer true in the modern world, except in certain places. Our plan is to use African ritual to release the magic in the play. From a personal point of view, I'm extremely pleased to be working with Janice Honeyman again. She directed me in the RSC production of Fugard's Hello and Goodbye. It's also been a lifelong ambition of mine to be onstage with the legendary South African actor John Kani. So this feels like all my dreams coming true.”
Knighted for his services for acting and writing, and an RSC Associate Artist, Antony Sher first worked for the RSC in 1982. His many roles for the company have included his award-winning performance in Richard III as well as the title roles in Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth. He played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Iago in Othello with Sello Maake Ka-Ncube in the title role. In 2005 he directed Fraser Grace’s play Breakfast with Mugabe for the RSC. His own play The Giant was recently premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in London. He played Disraeli in the film Mrs Brown alongside Judi Dench. His other credits include Stanley and Primo for the National Theatre, both of which transferred to Broadway and both won major awards. Antony Sher's books include the memoirs Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa, (co-written with his partner, the director Gregory Doran in 1997), Year of the King (1985) and his autobiography Beside Myself (2002). He last performed at the Baxter Theatre Centre in January 2005 when his one man show, Primo sold out before it opened, and for which he won the Fleur du Cap Best Solo Performance Award.
John Kani is an internationally recognised, multiple award-winning actor, director and playwright. His impressive list of theatre credits includes Claudius in Baxter Theatre's Hamlet which played in Stratford during the RSC's Complete Works Festival as well as in South Africa, Driving Miss Daisy, Othello, The Blood Knot, The Island, Waiting for Godot, Playland, Duet for One, Sizwe Banzi is Dead and My Children! My Africa! The Island, which won the Toronto Theatre Award 2001 for Best Production, was co-written by John, Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona – the same team also wrote Sizwe Banzi is Dead. John won the Best Actor Tony Award on Broadway for his performances in these plays.
In 2004 he performed in the Greek classic Antigone at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and then at Baxter Theatre Centre. His films include The Wild Geese, The Grass is Singing, Marigolds in August and Victims of Apartheid, His own play Nothing But The Truth won Fleur du Cap Awards for Best Actor for himself and Best New South African Play in 2002.
‘What a pleasure,” says Kani. “I have the chance to make theatre with my dear friends Mannie, Janice and Tony and get to work with the Baxter and the RSC again.”
John Kani believes the resonance of Shakespeare for South African audiences is crucial: “We have a history of colonisation by the British. Through missionaries at schools, we were taught to speak good English, the Queen's language. Why Shakespeare is relevant to us as Africans is that he tells stories of great kingdoms, great wars and battles, great love stories, stories of hatred, good vs. evil, mythology. These things make up the African culture. What makes Shakespeare's work classic is that it still has relevance today in African society.”
Joining Sir Antony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban, the formidable cast of South African actors will also include John Kani’s son, Atandwa Kani ( Ariel), and all three Brett Goldin Bursary* recipients - the 2007 recipient, Omphile Molusi (Sprite) and the 2008 recipients Thambi Mbongo (Sprite) and Nicholas Pauling (Sebastian).
The cast also includes: Ivan Abrahams (Gonzalo), Jeremy Crutchley (Alonso), Nkosinathi Gaar (Sprite), Alex Halligey (Sprite), Charlie Keegan (Ferdinand), Elton Landrew (Stephano), Lionel Newton (Antonio), Chuma Sopotela (Sprite), Royston Stoffels (Adrian/Fransisco), Wayne van Rooyen (Trinculo) and Tinarie van Wyk Loots (Miranda).
Director Janice Honeyman says: “Tony (Sher) and I sat around a barbeque one mid-summer evening in 2000 in London, and I broached my "African" Tempest to him. It's our play! It's African! It explores colonialism, paternalism, the master / servant relationship, corruption - trickery and plotting - reconciliation and forgiveness, and most of all the appropriation, not only of land, but also of cultural and religious beliefs! Doesn't that sound like home? Add to that, indigenous African music and the astounding visual images that are traditionally African, and we can give The Tempest a terrifically exciting interpretation. The mid-summer night was blue and flashing with ideas and electricity. We had to do this!”
Janice Honeyman has had a prolific and successful career as a director. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards and won an FNB Vita Award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Last year she directed the full-scale world premiere of Chris van Wyk's Shirley, Goodness and Mercy which won three Naledi Awards, Patrick Shanley's Doubt and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Baxter Theatre Centre, the Market Theatre and the State Theatre.
RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd said: “Baxter Theatre gave us one of our opening shows in the RSC's Complete Works Festival with Janet Suzman's production of Hamlet coming to Stratford-upon-Avon in 2006. I am delighted that we have this opportunity to work with them even more closely. This project is an example of the international collaborations that were seeded in the Festival which are still bearing fruit for us as a company, making us much more in tune with theatre making around the world than ever before."
Joining Janice Honeyman on the creative team are designer Ilke Louw, composer and sound designer Neo Mayunga, puppet maker Jannie Younge, lighting designer Mannie Manin and the RSC's own South African born Head of Text and Voice, Lyn Darnley. Mannie is Director and CEO of the Baxter Theatre Centre, as well as a lighting designer with an international reputation. In December 2007 he lit The Magic Flute and A Christmas Carol at the Young Vic, London, and Sizwe Banzi is Dead at the National Theatre, London (March 2007). Award-winning designer, Ilke's credits include Hair and Chess.
Mannie Manin added: “To be working with the RSC again, and to be part of originating and co-creating with them, one of Shakespeare's perennial favourites goes to the core of our vision and ethos. This historic creative partnership, with a production of this magnitude, is great news for us at the Baxter, Cape Town and whole of South Africa. It really is great news for this city, South Africa, Africa, England and theatre worldwide.'
Further information
For further information (UK) contact Royal Shakespeare Company Press Office: Nada Zakula, +441789 412622 (+447831 766086) or nada.zakula@rsc.org.uk
For further press enquiries, interview or picture requests and listings information (South Africa) contact Fahiem Stellenboom, Marketing Manager, Baxter Theatre Centre on 021 680 3971, cell 072 2656 023 or email fahiem.stellenboom@uct.ac.za
www.rsc.org.uk
www.baxter.co.za
Notes to Editors:
South Africa
Baxter Theatre Centre dates:
The Tempest previews from 15 January, Press Night is on 21 January and runs until 6 February 2009.
UK
The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon dates & booking information
The Tempest runs from 14 February - 14 March 2009.
RSC Members' priority booking opens Monday 16 June and public booking opens on 16 July 2008.
* THE BRETT GOLDIN AWARD
Brett Goldin, a young actor, was to play Guildenstern in Baxter's production of Hamlet in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2006. Brett and a friend were tragically murdered just days before the company's journey to the UK.
Antony Sher kickstarted a bursary fund called The Brett Goldin Award with the Baxter Theatre Centre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Actors' Centre immediately after the murders in 2006. The award offers apprenticeships with the RSC for young actors.
