No Christmas For Us by Nokuzola Zoe Bikwana is an award winning play, which is based on a rarely told story of events that unfolded in the townships of Nyanga and Gugulethu during the riots of 1976. No Christmas For Us can be see at Theatre Arts this week only.
Zoe Bikwana
During this time the students who opposed being taught in Afrikaans under the Bantu Education system had been involved in riots since June 16, but the struggle continues way into December when the comrades decide to persuade the migrant workers mostly from the eastern cape to get involved in the struggle. The migrants regard this persuasion as disrespectful and a digression from their aim of making a living for their families back in the villages; there is conflict which the third force manipulates. By 24th December things are really tense and on Christmas Day the migrants, with the help of the apartheid police decide to attack the township residents, there is no Christmas and 25 people are massacred on this day.
The play is performed by millennials (from Imbiza Theatre Company) based in Kraaifontein who know nothing about these events. Getting a role as part of the cast meant that each character had to do a lot of research around this period and immerse themselves into their characters. The play is directed by Sonwabo Mphandle and co-directed by Nelisa Fusa who happens to be an ex- student of the playwright, Bikwana. Most of the actors also happen to come from a school where she used to be an English teacher, so it is such a good feeling to know that an educator’s role does not stop the day their learners graduate from high school.
South Africa is still a country that suffers a lot from all the legacy of apartheid classification. Such legacy was recently witnessed with the labelling (and xenophobic attacks) on Tshidima the girl who correctly entered the Miss SA pageant as a South African born individual. The play provides an opportunity for us to reflect on many things like racism, tribalism, xenophobia, it forces the youth to interrogate their own current interests. When the 1976 fought against having beer halls, what is today’s youth struggling for. Is alcohol still an issue among people of colour today? Is discrimination still an issue? These are the issues that the play hopes the audience will pick up as they watch the play.
The playwright – Zoe Bikwana – is a former English and History teacher from different schools in the Western Cape townships and is now an educator at the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre. Bikwana is very passionate about human right’s issues and believes that all human beings are born equal and should treat one another as such. The play is there to prompt all of us to interrogate whether all that was fought for has borne any fruits or whether we have regressed as a nation.
Head for Theatre Arts for the award winning No Christmas For Us by Nokuzola Zoe Bikwana – which is only running this week!
WHAT: No Christmas For Us by Nokuzola Zoe Bikwana
WHERE: Theatre Arts, Methodist Church Hall, Cnr Milton Road and Wesley Street, Observatory, Cape Town 7925
WHEN: 6 – 9 November with Matinee at 2pm on 9 Nov,
TICKETS: Visit Theatre Arts to get all the information around the play and to make your bookings.
INFO: C 0827355776 | E zoe@holocaust.org.za | Theatre Arts – Caroline C 082 752 1376 | E caroline@theatrearts.co.za
