The legendary playwright, actor and director, Dr Kani, is making his directing and acting debut at Artscape for the first time in his career. John Kani’s acclaimed
Missing… premiered at the Baxter Theatre Centre in 2014 and is also a celebration of his life’s work which will run concurrently with the set work production,
Nothing But The Truth.
Well-known director Janice Honeyman once again teams with Kani for his latest hit play. The story follows the life of Robert Khalipa (played by Kani) who has been living in exile in Stockholm, Sweden, for over 30 years with his wife, Anna Olson (Susan Danford) and their daughter Ayanda (Buhle Ngaba). Anna has inherited her father’s large electronic and communications company and Ayanda is a young doctor working in a hospital in Stockholm.
Something that Khalipa has been waiting for all his life in exile has finally happened: Mandela has been released. South Africa is on the road to democracy. Going home has become a reality. Instead of a celebration, this new situation becomes the cancer that threatens to break the Khalipha family apart. To add insult to injury, Khalipa is not called home by the ANC to be part of the negotiations and the country’s future.
What follows is a plot full of intrigue, lies, backstabbing, conspiracy and political in-fighting. A young comrade, Peter Tshabalala (played by Apollo Ntshoko) is Khalipa’s assistant in the ANC office in Stockholm and he plays an important role in the isolation of Khalipa by the organisation. How can the release of Nelson Mandela be the reason for this family’s break up?
Missing… has been performed to great acclaim in Johannesburg and Pretoria and has just returned to Cape Town following its success at the
Iberoamerican Festival in Bogota, Columbia.
Dr Kani was recently honoured with a
Lifetime Achievement Award at the
2015 Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards.
For more information, visit
www.artscape.co.za. Alternatively, connect with them on
Twitter or
Facebook.
*Image courtesy of Andrew Brown