Award-winning movie to be staged as musical
IN 2015, CAPE Town Opera was awarded the rights to produce Tsotsi The Musical, a kwaito-music stage production based on Athol Fugard’s novel about a South African gangster’s life which gained world-wide recognition after the 2005 film adaptation.
The story of a young man who hijacked a woman, only to discover a three-month-old baby in the back seat, will always capture the hearts of South Africans.
Tsotsi won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006.
Now, 11 years down the line the stage production Tsotsi The Musical brings together some of South Africa’s most cutting-edge and talented creatives and tackles some of the country’s most pressing ongoing social issues.
It presents a gritty and moving portrait of a young man named David, alienated from his family and the promises of prosperity in a new democracy.
After a life of gangsterism, David is forced into a role of responsibility that leads to both his redemption and subsequent demise.
With music composed and directed by multi-award winning singer, songwriter, producer and composer, Zwai Bala (who exploded to stardom in 1997 with the kwaito group TKZee) and lyrics by Mkhululi Mabija (the librettist of CTO’s Bessie: The Blue-Eyed Xhosa) Tsotsi The Musical is directed by Neil Coppen and Khayelihle Dominique Gumede.
Michael Mitchell is the creator of an ingenious set, with movable elements, combined with video designer Kirsty Cumming’s use of screen projection, which brings to life the makeshift quality of township life.
Full of suspense and drama; harshness and introspection, this gritty, contemporary new South African musical is set to be a mustsee.
Tsotsi The Musical runs from February 10-18 at the Artscape Theatre and booking is through Computicket.