Theatre as Witness

Book excerpt: With a Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu Yael Farber's trilogy of plays bears powerful testimony to the personal truths of those who lived through the brutal Apartheid regime in South Africa. Woman in Waiting tells of Thembi Mtshali's separation from her mother as a child, only to continue this legacy of waiting when forced to leave her own baby to mind other people's children in the white suburbs. Amajuba is a moving tapestry of different personal perspectives on growing up under Apartheid. He Left Quietly is the harrowing experience of Duma Kumalo, one of the wrongly accused Sharpeville Six, on South Africa's Death Row; preparations made for his death and ultimate reprieve.