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Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Cast
Forrest McClendon
Lawrence Stallings

Set Designer
Meghan Jones
Costume Designer
Millie Hiibel
Lighting Designers
Janet Embree
David O'Connor
Sound Designers
Christopher Colucci
Mark Valenzuela
Composer
Christopher Colucci
Dramaturg
Kathryn MacMillan
Stage Manager
Rebecca Smith
Production History

Sizwe Bansi Is Dead
Philadelphia Premiere
By Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona
Directed by Peter DeLaurier
January 30 - March 1, 2009

From South Africa's most celebrated playwright comes a drama as powerful today as in its first performance 35 years ago. Styles, an enterprising photographer, has a small storefront in a Port Elizabeth township. When Sizwe, a migrant worker, comes in to have his picture taken, the two explore issues of image and identity under South Africa's oppressive regime. Both soaring and personal, the play's attack on the dehumanizing laws of the apartheid era resonates with surprising humor and uplifting faith in the human spirit.

"The acting is so good and the truth of the political horror so vivid that Lantern's Sizwe Bansi Is Dead is an engrossing and thought-provoking evening, smartly directed by Peter DeLaurier." –The Philadelphia Inquirer

"An important piece of theater, very well mounted, performed and directed." –Broad Street Review

"Sizwe Bansi Is Dead works its magic subtly... If you don't think you're in the mood for an Apartheid drama, think again." –Talkin' Broadway

"Funny, gripping and immediate... The message resonates, but it's the vividness of the personalities, the genuineness of the performances, that make Sizwe Bansi Is Dead so alive."
–Philadelphia City Paper

"Beautifully directed... lifts even the most jaded theatergoers' spirits." –Philadelphia Weekly

"Timeless...especially as portrayed by Mr. McClendon and Mr. Stallings, who are pitch-perfect in their roles and flawless in their execution of this poetic script." –The Bulletin
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Header Photo: Lawrence Stallings in the world premiere of Me and the Devil (2021); Anthony Lawton and Dave Johnson in Travesties (2022); Melissa Rakiro and Joanna Liao in Twelfth Night (2023); and Paul L. Nolan, Sally Mercer, and Charles McMahon in Copenhagen (2018). Photos by Mark Garvin.

Lantern Theater Company acknowledges that it is situated on Lenapehoking, the ancestral and spiritual homeland of the Unami Lenape, and we pay respect to them as this region's original storytellers.

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