Definitely not just another play about apartheid, Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot (Photographs above by Siphiwe Mhlambi) is terrifying for its relevance more than 60 years after it premiered.
Compelling performances from Mncedisi Shabangu and Francois Jacobs as two brothers whose lives have followed very different paths thanks to the different shades of darkness of their skin.
This ‘war of the shades’ has been an ever-present poison since long before this play’s premier in 1961, 13 years after racism in South Africa was codified and enacted as apartheid.
It is important that we continue to look this monster in the eye, tell these stories, watch these plays. Blood Knot will have you asking a million questions and pondering the past and the future. It will also pull you into the small room where the brothers live, and hold you there.
An important and compelling piece of theatre that comes to Cape Town after a sold-out run at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre and five nominations for Naledi Theatre Awards. At The Baxter Golden Arrow Studio until May 28.