Sizwe Banzi Is Dead
by Athol Fugard, John Kani, Winston Ntshona

Name: Sizwe Banzi Is Dead
Brand: Athol Fugard
SKU: 9780930452612
Rating: 3.84 (244 reviews)

Sizwe Banzi Is Dead Book Cover — Sizwe Banzi Is Dead Cover

Highlights

Female

Male

90 mins1980sMulticultural CastingInterior SetPeriod Costumes

Synopsis

In Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Sizwe Banzi, a African worker whose passbook is not in order, walks into the photograph studio of Styles, another African.

Without a proper passbook, Sizwe Banzi cannot work and therefore cannot support his wife and four children.

Returning drunkenly from a bar one night, Sizwe Banzi and his friend, Buntu, stumble across the body of a dead man whose passbook is in order.

Photographer Styles attaches Sizwe Banzi's photo to the dead man's passbook.

So Sizwe Banzi "dies" by taking on the dead man's identity and so, too, lives again so he can support himself and his family.

Press Reviews

"Touching, moving and beautiful."
— The New York Times

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
FRIEDA JOUBERT A white librarian	—	—	A white librarian
ERROL PHILANDER a black schoolteacher	—	—	a black schoolteacher
DETECTIVE SERGEANT J. DUPEREZ - a neighboring white detective	—	—	SERGEANT J. DUPEREZ - a neighboring white detective