Classic ‘Sophiatown’ still has meaning today
Sophiatown, a South African classic, will return to its native home at the Market Theatre, where it premièred 37 years ago.
The production goes back to its roots following a highly successful season in 2023 at the South African State Theatre in Pretoria.
The State Theatre’s artistic director Aubrey Sekhabi conducts this powerful and poignant restaging of the piece.
The Junction Avenue Theatre Company composed the soundtrack for the multi-award-winning production.
“Dealing with the script, I realised that Sophiatown is actually a drama with music, and not a musical play,” said Sekhabi.
“The text is so rich, even if you remove the songs, it will still hold up as a powerful play.”
Greg Homann, the artistic director of the Market Theatre, said: “It is wonderful to be able to offer our audience this beautifully crafted version of Sophiatown.
“When I first saw the production at the State Theatre, with a full house of school pupils one Friday afternoon, I was so enthralled with how that audience connected with the history, humour and overall impact that the work still has for us today.
“It’s a privilege to be able to welcome Sophiatown back to its home theatre, where it can be shared again with those that know and love it, and with those that are seeing the work for the very first time.”
The play is based on the famous drama postulation of “what if?”
During the repressive 1950s, two Drum magazine journalists advertise for a tenant to come live with them in Mamariti’s shebeen in the freehold township of Sophiatown.
To their surprise, a white Jewish girl from Yeoville arrives on their doorstep.
Sparks fly in the milieu of Sophiatown culture that mixes Drum magazine journalism, jazz, literature, tsotsitaal and gangsterism.
Audiences will be mesmerised by the musical genres of marabi, kofifi and kwela, all inspired by the defiant residents of the mixed area, which was a thorn in the side of the apartheid establishment.
Sekhabi discusses the play’s significance, saying, “The question of identity, landlessness, education and race relations still haunts South Africa.
“A piece like Sophiatown reminds us of how far we have come and how much work still needs to be done to create a better South Africa”.
The play was a product of the Junction Avenue Theatre Company’s workshop method in the mid-1980s of sourcing stories from the lived reality of the people of Sophiatown and then distilling these nuggets to produce the text.