Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater (eBook)

A play

Neil Coppen, Mpume Mthombeni, Kira Erwin (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2024
128 Seiten
Wits University Press (Verlag)
978-1-77614-881-3 (ISBN)

Infos

An electrifying one-woman play inspired by the true story of a woman who served as a political assassin during South Africa’s transition to democracy. As the protagonist confronts her past, she becomes a powerful symbol of defiance and compassion in a story of resistance and survival in a conflict-torn country.

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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. Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater is a 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 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), in Zulu folklore a shapeshifting bird associated with witchcraft and the harbinger of storms and death, 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. Written with pathos and empathy, this playscript will appeal to teachers, high school learners, and tertiary students in theatre, drama and English studies.

Inhalt

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 McGarry

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.4.2024
• Verlagsort: Johannesburg
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Lyrik / Dramatik ► Dramatik / Theater
• Schlagworte: African folklore, Zulu mythology • Athol Fugard • domestic drama • Empatheatre • HIV/Aids • impundulu • Leitmotiv • lightning bird • magical-realist • monologue • Participatory justice • Post-modern • research-based theatre • Satire • South Africa 1980s • South Africa democracy • South African Theatre • Superstition • theatre-making • theatre-making as participatory justice • Thriller • Urban Futures Centre • Witchcraft • Zulu mythology
• ISBN-10: 1-77614-881-9 / 1776148819
• ISBN-13: 978-1-77614-881-3 / 9781776148813