‘The Suitcase’ well received in the UK
Play’s director says Yorkshire shows were all sold out
English audiences have fallen in love with award-winning local theatre production The Suitcase.
The production, which is on a five-city tour of the UK, opened two weeks ago at Yorkshire in England to a sold-out performance.
James Ngcobo, the director, said the play’s performances in Hull City, Lancester, Derby, Newcastle and Liverpool were sold out.
“The show is performed in theatres that accommodate 300 to 500 people and [they] are sold out. It is overwhelming that the production has been well received.”
Ngcobo said while performing last week at Hull City, they were shocked to learn that in the audience were Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan, who was UN secretary-general from 1997 to 2006, and British politician John Prescott.
“It was truly an honour to meet him [Annan] after the performance with the cast. He loved the performance and felt it was a true [African] story.”
The Suitcase boasts the crème de la crème of SA actors such as Masasa Mbangeni, Siyabonga Twala, John Lata, Gugu Shezi and Bheki Khoza, among others.
Ngcobo said the biggest attraction to the play was the moral question that lingered throughout it.
“It is so humbling that the power of storytelling has revived a 2006 play and brought it back to life for an international audience.
“After the play was a success and won Naledi awards‚ we stayed away from it because we did not want to mess with it‚” he added.
The Suitcase was written in 1954.
The play is based on Es’kia Mphahlele’s short story – set in the 1950s in Sophiatown – and has been revived since it was first staged in 2006.
It is based on real life events between a young rural couple‚ Timi and Namhla Ngobese, who despite their family’s disapproval of their marriage, relocate to the city to make a better life for themselves.