Sizwe Banzi is Dead

3½ STARS "Court’s show deftly captures the free-wheeling nature of a play born in improvisation, while also making clear that the piece is engaged with matters of the highest stakes. That’s a tough line to walk and Parson, who moves the show in and out of the audience, walks it with equal measures of sadness, humanity, optimism and pizzazz."

"HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ... With rich storytelling, biting humor and great empathy, "Sizwe Banzi," set in a black township in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, looks at the predicaments of three different black men and shows how each comes to terms with the life-constricting rules and bureaucratic nightmares of apartheid ..."

4 STARS "Johnson invests Styles with a protean verve, but this production really comes to life with the entrance of Gilmore’s reticent, almost Beckettian Sizwe. Together, the duo seizes the Court space, glad-handing the audience during a drunken spree and vehemently debating the charged issues raised by Sizwe’s situation."

"Even with apartheid in the past, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead is powerful theater... Allen Gilmore and Chiké Johnson give meticulous, poised performances as Banzi and Buntu, compellingly evoking the proud, wounded psyches of their characters..."

"Don’t let the exotic title fool you. “Sizwe Banzi is Dead” speaks loud and clear to a contemporary audience on at least three different levels: as dazzling monologue play, as powerful political drama and as valuable social history chronicle."

"Chike Johnson and Allen Gilmore together gave two of the strongest, most truthful performances you’ll see on stage anywhere. The do Kani and Ntshona justice. This is powerful theatre!"

“Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” is an exceptionally rich playgoing experience and the acting is superb in its commitment and artistry. It’s all there—humor, outage, frustration, poignancy, and fear. A most powerful and rewarding evening."

"It conveys the shattered yet persevering spirit of the men and women who fought each day to sustain their identity in the face of absolute oppression, and it perfectly balances levity and gravitas to imbue Athol Fugard’s classic South African play with a newfound sense of relevance."

"Sizwe Banzi Is Dead" is an eye opening story, well done in an intimate theater under the stunning direction of a man who understands the poetry of what Fugard and his cohorts wrote, as well as the politics it takes issue with."