Riveting remake of 1950s opera
When it was first staged almost 60 years ago in 1959, it was lauded by a critic from the Johannesburg Star as “the greatest thrill in 20 years of South Africa theatre”. It was viewed by more than 200 000 South Africans in multi-racial audiences at the height of the apartheid era.
Miriam Makeba was catapulted into the public eye in her role as Joyce, the queen of the Back of the Moon shebeen in Sophiatown, while a young Hugh Masekela performed as part of the band along with music icons Kippie Moeketsi and Thandi Klaasen. When the musical toured in the West End in 1961 with an entirely black cast of 70 non-professional actors, it ran to over 200 performances and was hailed as a triumph.
The current version is without a doubt an electric, riveting and astounding reinvention of Todd Matshikiza’s original opera.
The story is based on the rise and fall of heavyweight boxer Ezekiel Dlamini, who took the stage name King Kong due to his ferocious reputation in the ring.
Andile Gumbi bears a striking resemblance to the boxer and has the impressive presence needed for the role, while Sanda Shandu does an excellent job of playing the mean gangster Lucky. Sne Dladla is Pop, the raconteur, and Nondumiso Tembe plays Joyce.
Tembe impresses from the word go, playing the streetwise shebeen queen perfectly. She has a beautifully powerful voice which she puts to good use as she belts out Pat Williams’ original lyrics that are adroitly arranged for this latest interpretation by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder.
A cleverly designed triple-level stage draws you into the action, set in 1950s Sophiatown. A high sense of energy, sometimes almost electric, is sustained throughout the play as the audience is taken through the King’s dreams, his fights, his love and his strife with Lucky, who lives by the knife and is backed by his equally mean criminal cohorts.
It’s difficult to single out individual scenes as there’s an almost seamless transition from one sequence to the next: from the foot-tapping music bringing to life the classic songs of the original, the sassy shebeen jiving to the thumping group dances. The smoky atmosphere in the shebeen is evocatively rendered, as is the electric atmosphere in the boxing ring where the action is fast and furious.
There are also some delightfully funny scenes mostly led by the charming Dladla, as the Sophiatown locals laugh up a storm, and some whimsically tender moments between the King and Joyce.
The skilled band expertly bring to life the original songs and music, so that you almost feel as if you are in the shebeen or on the streets of Sophiatown. The choreography is brilliant, whether it’s in the shebeen, in the infectious dance scenes or the riveting sequences in the boxing ring.
This triumphant production enchants and uplifts.
King Kong moves to Johannesburg on September 12 and will run at the Mandela Theatre until October 8.