When lockdown hit London in April of this year, John Kani’s new play Kunene and the King had just two weeks left of its run at the Ambassadors Theatre. At the time Kani wrote on his Twitter platform, “London, the Prime Minister has closed all theatres public gatherings pubs restaurants football and sports to halt the spread of this virus. So my play has closed in London. We were only left with two weeks to go anyway. Thank you to all who supported us. What a run!!”
Talking to Algoa FM’s Roland and Rochlé on The Drive show yesterday, he said that he was fortunate to have obtained a seat onboard the last British Airways flight allowed to bring South African citizens back home from England. While grateful to be home and currently staying safely in Johannesburg, he said he wishes he was in New Brighton because “then I would really feel I am home”.
A giant in the arts, be it as a playwright, performing on stage or gracing the silver screen, Kani shows no sign of slowing down to enjoy the fruits of his labour. As he approaches his 77 birthday he is still writing, still performing and still trying to change the world with his indefatigable spirit of hope for a society where equality reigns supreme. This is the theme of his latest play Kunene and the King.
It has received rave reviews with The Guardian perhaps best summing up the essence of this fine piece of work: ”John Kani beautifully captures the complex divides of race, class and politics in a remarkable and moving new play’.
Set twenty-five years after the first post-apartheid democratic elections the two characters are men from vastly different walks of life, thrust together to reflect on a quarter-century of change. In director Janice Honeyman’s words, “The play is set in South Africa. Jack Morris (played by Antony Sher) is a white South African classical actor who is well known for performing in Shakespeare roles. He’s been offered the title role in King Lear. He accepts it and then discovers that he has liver cancer. He refuses to stay in the hospital and so discharges himself, and Lunga Kunene, a black South African (played by John Kani) becomes his at-home carer.”
Morris is not expecting a black nurse to arrive at his door.
In Kani’s own words, “A journey begins and a beautiful one with all the trials and tests of two human beings trapped in one room, both having their previous sort of prejudices and opinions and misconceptions of one another…and in one hour 35 minutes...a friendship that is stronger than anything that could happen between two people coming out of South Africa”.
Kani went on to say that the play had been scheduled for a run at the Market Theatre as well as at Nelson Mandela Bay’s iconic Opera House but with the current ban on public gatherings all theatres remain dark. He did however promise that it will most definitely be staged at the Opera House once life returns to normal.
As the interview came to an end, Kani told Roland and Rochlé that in the 60’s he used to walk past the Opera House together with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona and they would all joke that one day they would perform there. Not only did Kani get to see his name up in lights at the Opera House, but the road in which it is housed has been renamed John Kani Rd.
Dr Kani – you are an officer and a gentleman and your hometown is ready and waiting to welcome you back with open arms when all this is over. May the next time you chat to Roland and Rochlé be live in-studio, ‘sans mask’, to talk about Kunene and the King opening at the Opera House.
