- 128 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater is a one-woman play inspired by the true story of a woman who served as a political assassin in the build-up to South Africa's first democratic elections. Zenzile Maseko, the protagonist, is a 60-year-old grandmother living in a women's hostel in Durban. Falsely declared dead by the Department of Home Affairs, she finds herself cast into a Kafkaesque nightmare that forces her to confront her past.
Flown in on the wings of the Impundulu (the lightning bird), in Zulu folklore a shapeshifting bird associated with witchcraft and the harbinger of storms and death, Zenzile's story weaves a magical and terrifying tapestry. She draws on myth, religious symbolism and traditional beliefs as she shares the realities – at times brutal, at times forgiving – of survival in South Africa. Her story touches on what it means to live through political violence, the transition to democracy, the brutality of inequality, health epidemics like HIV/AIDS, patriarchy, and the apathetic bureaucracy of government departments.
Ultimately, Isidlamlilo / The Fire Eater offers a critical and unflinching look at the eddying cycles of violence and revenge that play out across generations. Yet it is most of all a story about regeneration and redemption that speaks to both the country's haunted past and its present-day complexities.
Written with pathos and empathy, this playscript will appeal to teachers, high school learners, and tertiary students in theatre, drama and English studies.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword, by Kira Erwin
- Notes on the script and staging
- Images from production
- Production credits
- Scene 1: Conversations with Nkulunkulu
- Scene 2: Home Affairs Showdown (Part 1)
- Scene 3: Ipharadesi Lost
- Scene 4: Impundulu Strikes
- Scene 5: The Scar
- Scene 6: Zenzile's First Revenge
- Scene 7: Exile
- Scene 8: The Rise of Impundulu
- Scene 9: Home Affairs Showdown (Part 2)
- Scene 10: Zenzile Reborn
- Scene 11: The Fall of Impundulu
- Scene 12: Resurrection
- Scene 13: The Cleansing
- Scene 14: Burial Prayer
- Scene 15: Zenzile's Revelations! Home Affairs Showdown (Part 3)
- Scene 16: Peace
- Afterword: Q&A with Neil Coppen and Mpume Mthombeni, by Dylan McGarry