Woza Albert! is in the CAPS Matric Syllabus and will be an option that will be tested in your final Matric exam.
This is a detailed yet condensed summary and analysis of the play.
I used these notes for my June exam , Prelims and my Final exam.
I achieved an A for Drama in Matric
An example of…
- Poor theatre
- Workshop theatre
- Protest theatre
- Satire
Characters
- Hendrik Verwoerd
- Fidel Castro
- Street meat vendor
- Aunty Dudu
- Street barber
- Barber’s client
- Coal vendors on a lorry
- “A fragile toothless old man”
- Bobbejaan
- Baas Kom
- Zulu Boy
- Television announcer
- Patrick Alexander Smith
- Great Aunt Matilda
- Workers at the Albert Street Pass Office
Opening
- Opening: mocks tradition of Eurocentric theatre
- Prior to creation of original South African pieces the Apartheid government invested in
touring productions from the Us and Europe (well known ballads and musicals)
- The productions were well executed but held no relevance to South African context
- They did not allow budding South African performers to voice their opinion on stage
- Begin: once the audience found seats the line orchestra plays a medley of pieces that
will later be in production
- Sets the mood and becomes musical teaser of what is to come
- A medley of music gives the full spectrum of emotions for what the audience is yet to
experience
- This does not appear in traditional South African plays so is parodied by Percy +
Mbongeni
- Two men position themselves almost like a totem pole
- Stage lighting = sculptural appearance
- Begin to jerk/flinch limbs to imitate the movement of a band
- Vocally they mimic the sound of instruments creating the audio impression of an overture
, - A traditional overture would end with a curtain opening
- This original intro concludes w/ 2 performers climbing out of totem position + applauding
themselves
- Quick transition: performer and audience
- Actual audience encouraged to join in clapping
- There is an intimate actor audience bond for production that will be spiritually ,
psychologically politically challenging
- This opening action of play begins also sets tone for the remainder of play
- Whereas in theatre realism the actors never break the 4th invisible wall
- This raw and biting production show awareness of audience
- Didactic intention
- Woza Albert! aims to teach the foolery of apartheid and officials
- Point out the hypocrisy by created by a divided nation
Scene 1 Market theatre
- 2 actors play multitude of characters
- Challenging: 2 men swap race , gender and language and other constraints through
manipulation of voice + body
- In scene Percy parodies a policeman where as Mbongeni is a street musician
- Street musician is reprimanded for not having a pass book
- In order to avoid arrest guitarist uses successive synonyms
- captain /colonel/Brigadier/General/Boss/president
- Policeman announces that musician is going to be sent to Modder B prison
- Policeman (percy) chases guitarist (Mbongeni) behind the clothes rail
Scene 2
- Emerge from other side of the clothes rail wearing prison blankets around their shoulders
- Modder B prison
- Singing a prison song of a prisoner’s fantasy of his women longing for him
- Prisoner inspection
- Doing Towsa dance + at the end revealing empty orifices and armpits
- As part of the Towsa dance they explain that they do not have any contraband on them
Scene 3
- Two prisoners are asleep + one sings in their sleep
- The prisoner who sings , sings to comfort himself about Morena
- The 2nd prisoner is annoyed by the disturbance in the night + violently shakes the other
awake
- The quick change sets polarising opinion in the play
- Encounter believers and sceptics
- Physical and verbal conflict as those w/different ideologies clash
- Sense of pain and abandonment too extreme to consider redemption
- However the believer persists that Morena remains with them despite being in prison
and suffering
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