THE KING MAKES A COMEBACK
For Gregory Maqoma, whose performance aesthetic is a marriage of music and dance, choreographing the Fugard Theatre’s King Kong is a dream assignment
My father was still a bachelor and one of an estimated 120,000 South Africans who saw the production of King Kong that opened at Wits University’s Great Hall in Johannesburg in 1959, then toured to Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth for a total of eight months. It moved to London’s West End in 1961 for 200 performances.
He saw Miriam Makeba and
Hugh Masekela, among others, launched into international stardom as the 70-strong cast performed the story of the rise and fall of heavyweight boxing champion Ezekiel Dlamini, known as King Kong in the ring.
In her book he relied on “gambling with cards and dice to live. . . until he found himself in the sparring rooms of the Bantu Men’s Social Centre,” writes De Beer. “He wasn’t the kind of boxer who had polish,” one of his fans recalled, “but his wild jabbing, his strength, speed and stamina soon brought him to the top.”
Dlamini’s career began to fade after he was badly beaten by Simon “Greb” Mthimkulu. In 1957 he was jailed for murdering his girlfriend, who he suspected of betraying him. Dlamini’s 12-year hard-labour sentence on Leeukop prison farm near Johannesburg lasted less than two weeks before he was found drowned in a dam on the property.
In August this year, about 58 years later, my father will be in the audience again for the long-awaited Fugard Theatre production of King Kong. Todd Matshikiza’s uplifting score and Pat Williams’ original book and lyrics provide the foundation for this restaging, with internationally acclaimed dancer, director and