Isidlamlilo/ The Fire Eater is an electrifying one-woman play inspired by the true story of a woman who served as a political assassin in the build-up to South Africa’s first democratic elections. Zenzile Maseko, the protagonist, is a 60-year-old Zulu grandmother living in a women’s hostel in Durban. Falsely declared dead by the Department of Home Affairs, she finds herself cast into a Kafkaesque nightmare that forces her to confront her past. Flown in on the wings of the Impundulu (the lightning bird), Zenzile’s story weaves a magical and terrifying tapestry. She draws on myth, religious symbolism and traditional beliefs as she shares the realities – at times brutal, at times forgiving – of survival in South Africa. Her story touches on what it means to live through political violence, the transition to democracy, the brutality of inequality, health epidemics like HIV/AIDS, patriarchy, and the apathetic bureaucracy of government departments. Ultimately, Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater offers a critical and unflinching look at the eddying cycles of violence and revenge that play out across generations. Yet it is most of all a story about regeneration and redemption that speaks to both the country’s haunted past and its present-day complexities. Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater will appeal to teachers, high school learners, and tertiary students in theatre, drama and English studies.
Cuprins
Acknowledgements Foreword by Kira Erwin Notes on script and staging Images from production Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater: Playscript Scene 1: Conversations with Nkulunkulu Scene 2: Home Affairs showdown (part 1) Scene 3: Ipharadesi lost Scene 4: Impundulu strikes Scene 5: The scar Scene 6: Zenzile’s first revenge Scene 7: Exile Scene 8: The rise of Impundulu Scene 9: Home Affairs showdown (part 2) Scene 10: Zenzile reborn Scene 11: The fall of Impundulu Scene 12: Resurrection Scene 13: The cleansing Scene 14: Burial prayer Scene 15: Zenzile’s revelations! Home Affairs showdown (part 3) Scene 16: Peace Afterword: Q&A with Neil Coppen and Mpume Mthombeni, by Dylan Mc Garry
Despre autor
Kira Erwin is a sociologist and Senior Researcher at the Urban Futures Centre at the Durban University of Technology, South Africa.
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