Making Mandela: from rural boy to SA icon

The new, captivating production, Making Mandela, is the story of what influenced the rural boy to become a global legend. The production is an imaginative journey through the childhood of Mandela, featuring colourful characters, vividly portrayed in masks, with physical performances supported by emotive sound and theatrical styling.

The year 1918 marks the birth of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, as well as the Afrikaner Broederbond. Making Mandela tells the story of two opposing forces with different upbringings, natures, backgrounds and intentions developed in parallel and destined to one day confront each other in a battle for freedom.

In 2009, Jenine Collocott received funding from the National Arts Council to write the script. She then employed Nick Warren and they researched and wrote the script together. Jenine was subsequently invited to the NAC writing initiative So You Think You Can Write, where the script was read publically in 2010.

After that Jenine furthered her theatre studies for three years in Italy. In 2013 she applied to the NAC and was successful for a percentage of the total production budget. Last year, Jenine joined forces with KBT Productions to produce the piece. She received a letter from the Nelson Mandela Foundation confirming their support.

The play was was also directed and designed by Collocott, with sceneography construction by Duncan Gibbon and sound design by Peter Cornell.

INFO:

• Making Mandela is now on at the Auto & General Theatre on the Square, until October 3.
• Tickets are R140 and available from strictlytickets.com