Nanzikambe actor stages ‘Blood Knot’ in Switzerland

South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard's plays continue to be adapted by Malawian actors with Nanzikambe's actor Thoko Kapiri starring Blood Knot at Zurich University of Arts in Switzerland recently.

Kapiri, who is currently pursuing theatre studies in Switzerland, first directed Blood Knot at Arts Café in Blantyre last year when the play featured Misheck Mzuma r a and Vinc ent Maluwa.

Having played director, Kapiri shifted to acting in Switzerland.

The production comes at a time Nanzikambe Arts, in collaboration with Lions Theatre, have been staging another of Fugard's play, Sizwe Bansi is dead.

Kapiri, who also staged another production last year in the country in which he exposed his academic skills, said he was happy to show the play to a different audience.

"Having directed the play, I am happy to have played it where I starred as Zach and German actor Timo Kaehlert as Morri. We received a good reception from the audience," he said, adding that the play has since been earmarked for German and Malawian tour, mid this year.

He said the play premiered on January 17 before being restaged on January 18 as part of an academic but public audience project alongside other theatre pieces.

"Blood Knot emerged as one of the most touching one; many said it is funny in its presentation. The audiences' reaction to the play was revealing on how relevant issues of race remain controversial in an age where we call ourselves globalised and integrated," explained Kapiri.

He said the production will star again at Zurich University in March before hitting Konstanz in Germany in June and then Malawi.

"The theme of racism that rings strong in the piece makes it ideal in the wake of anti-migrant movements going on across Europe at the moment," said Kapiri.

Blood Knot is an early play by Fugard. Its single-performance premier was in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the playwright and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah.

This was the first South African play performed with an interracial cast and it was most recently performed in Johannesburg in 2010 as part of Mandela Day celebrations.

The two brother characters were both raised by the same black mother but have different fathers, and Morris is much more fair-skinned than Zachariah.

Morris can pass for white, and has done so in the past, but now he has returned to live with Zachariah in a small, miserable shack in the "colored" section of Port Elizabeth.

Morris keeps the house while Zachariah works to support them both. They are saving money in hopes of buying a farm of their own some day. Both Morris and Zachariah have rich imaginations and have taken part in role-playing games together since they were small boys.

The lonely Zachariah has struck up a pen-pal relationship with a white girl and entertains fantasies that she might fall in love with him.

But the more level-headed Morris tries to disabuse Zachariah of such notions. He warns him that such a relationship can only mean trouble, especially since the girl has indicated in letters that her brother is a police.