novel sizwe banzi

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (originally produced and published as: Sizwe Bansi is Dead) is a play by Athol Fugard, written collaboratively with two South African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. Its world première occurred on 8 October 1972 at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa. Its subsequent British première won a London Theatre Critics Award for the Best Play of 1974.[citation needed] Its American première occurred at the Edison Theatre, in New York City, on 13 November 1974.

It has been ranked among the best plays ever made by The Independent, where it was described as a "deceptively light and humane play that outlasts the apartheid era.

In 1972, Fugard directed the play's world premiere in Cape Town, followed the next year by a staging at London's Royal Court Theatre, which transferred to the Ambassadors, with Kani as Styles and Buntu and Ntshona as Robert/Sizwe. There, it won The London Theatre Critics award. After six previews, the Broadway production, presented in repertory with The Island, opened on 13 November 1974 at the Edison Theatre, where it ran for 159 performances. Kani and Ntshona jointly won Tony Awards for Best Actor in a Play for their performances in both Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island.

They reunited for the production staged at the Royal National Theatre in London in 2007. That year the play was translated into French by Marie-Hélène Estienne for a version staged by Peter Brook at the Barbican Centre.