Sizwe Banzi Is Dead

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead
Poster for the 2007 Royal National Theatre production
Written byAthol Fugard
John Kani
Winston Ntshona
CharactersStyles
Robert (Sizwe Banzi)
Buntu
Date premiered1972 (1972)
Place premieredSouth Africa

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (originally produced and published as: Sizwe Bansi is Dead) is a play by Athol Fugard, written collaboratively with two South African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. Its world première occurred on 8 October 1972 at the Space Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa. Its subsequent British première won a London Theatre Critics Award for the Best Play of 1974. Its American première occurred at the Edison Theatre, in New York City, on 13 November 1974. It has been ranked among the best plays ever made by The Independent, where it was described as a "deceptively light and humane play that outlasts the apartheid era."