See The Alley and Killwatch at Wits
JOBURG – Written by one of the most intelligent African playwrights of the 20th century, The Alley and Killwatch come to life on stage at Wits.
The Alley and Killwatch are merged into one play and staged at Wits for the first time.
The Wits School of Art is staging a student production of Dambudzo Marechera’s The Alley and Killwatch, directed by Dr Samuel Ravengai, a senior lecturer and head of theatre and performance at the Wits Main Theatre.
“The Alley and Killwatch were written by one of the most intelligent African playwrights of the 20th Century. Marechera is one of the few absurd playwrights in Africa [and] an African absurd piece is not something to be missed,” said Dr Ravengai.
He continued, “Marechera is well known in literary circles and his ideas are little known in the theatre. This is the first time that his plays are produced in South Africa in a professional space. To watch The Alley and Killwatch is to be part of the making of history.”
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The Alley, a story of two men on the opposite sides of the Rhodesian conflict who seek solutions but find themselves no better than they were at the beginning of the tale and Killwatch, the story lacking a plot in which nothing is explained and each character makes decisions on impulse, are merged to form one 60-minute play performed by eight cast members.
“We are creatively combining them to stage a single play. The reason is that they are both absurd plays centring around the same themes. In The Alley, Robin hears voices of ghosts of people he murdered during the war. In Killwatch, two ghosts appear as the main characters and provide an interesting link between the two plays,” Dr Ravengai gave insight into the dialogue-based production.
While the play brings to life the stories of a legend – which even relate to the current South African racial and ethnic conflicts – it also works as a training ground for a second and third-year performing arts student and is therefore even more important to support.
See The Alley and Killwatch on stage from 24 to 29 April at the Wits Main Theatre.
Details: www.webtickets.co.za; www.wits.ac.za/witstheatre
Edited by Beryl Knipe
