A Gibson Kente musical tribute is set to wow audiences at the Durban Play House next month. The play “How Long” will be revived by well-known director Duma Ndlovu after 45 years.
It was banned during the apartheid era.
It is a play that was said to have unnerved the apartheid government. It told the story of a grandmother brutally killed by police. Fearing it would have cause a possible uprising, “How Long” was eventually banned.
It is 45 years later and Bra Gibson Kente often referred to as the father of township theatre and his theatre returns to the stage.
His close friend and Director Duma Ndlovu says it has taken 12 years to bring this project to life. “Just before he died in 2004, he came to me, set down and said, Nxengu, I would like to leave all my works under your care to do with them whatever you can. I’m proud that today that I’m standing here at the play house with the first play of the re-imagined works of Gibson Kente about to be launched and I’m very excited.”
Popular South African entertainer Somizi Mhlongo has choreographed the play.
“When they asked me to choreograph I was really honoured because that is when I was conceived in the musical. It’s amazing that I was born there and I listened to the music and watched it in Orlando East.”
Kente wrote several plays that reflected the struggles of black people in the 1960s. He produced his first play “Manana the Jazz Prophet” in 1963 which featured celebrated musicians Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu.
His other famous pieces include Mama and the Load and Too late. In 1976, he was jailed shortly after the filming of How Long. It was last performed in the country in 1973.
Kente died in the year 2003 after publicly announcing that he was HIV positive.
“How Long” opens at the Durban Play House from the 5 May.
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