Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Glossary and translation
- Images from production
- Ulwembu: the play script
- Prologue: Our story
- Scene 1 Behind the police station
- Scene 2 The police station, captain's office
- Scene 3 The school yard
- Scene 4 Portia's house
- Scene 5 Behind Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 6 Behind Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 7 The police station
- Scene 8 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 9 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 10 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 11 Portia's house
- Scene 12 Bongani's house
- Scene 13 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 14 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 15 Bongani's house
- Scene 16 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 17 Sipho's room
- Scene 18 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 19 Captain's office
- Scene 20 Behind the police station
- Scene 21 Bongani's house
- Scene 22 Portia's house
- Scene 23 Captain's office
- Scene 24 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 25 On the street
- Epilogue: Our story
- Notes
- The Authors
Scene 16 - Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2019
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Glossary and translation
- Images from production
- Ulwembu: the play script
- Prologue: Our story
- Scene 1 Behind the police station
- Scene 2 The police station, captain's office
- Scene 3 The school yard
- Scene 4 Portia's house
- Scene 5 Behind Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 6 Behind Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 7 The police station
- Scene 8 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 9 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 10 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 11 Portia's house
- Scene 12 Bongani's house
- Scene 13 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 14 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 15 Bongani's house
- Scene 16 Outside Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 17 Sipho's room
- Scene 18 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 19 Captain's office
- Scene 20 Behind the police station
- Scene 21 Bongani's house
- Scene 22 Portia's house
- Scene 23 Captain's office
- Scene 24 Emmanuel's sphaza shop
- Scene 25 On the street
- Epilogue: Our story
- Notes
- The Authors
Summary
ANDILE sits rolling a joint. SIPHO hovers impatiently over him, scratching himself. The bed is placed on its side and facing the audience, the springs might resemble a barbed wire fence.
SIPHO: Hurry up, bra.
ANDILE: I'm hurrying.
SIPHO [clutching his belly and pacing]: When this deal is over [Beat.] I'm finished with this shit. I hate it, no one takes us seriously … no one cares about us. Even when you want to say something nobody listens. We are a joke, Andile … a fucking joke. I don't like what I've become. My whole life has come to a standstill. From Monday to Sunday all I can think about is smoking. [Pause.] I want my old life back. I want to be the person I was before.
ANDILE: Shut up, wena.
ANDILE lights the whoonga joint and they each take a toke. SIPHO inhales deeply and leans back onto the springs of the bed, which is still standing upright and facing the audience.
Music. TWO CAST MEMBERS now control the bed's slow descent to the floor. SIPHO is lying on it as it moves from the vertical to the horizontal. The image magically suggests the intense relief and all too brief transcendence of SIPHO's high. As the bed lands back on earth ANDILE shrinks off into the shadows.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- UlwembuEmpatheatre and the Big Brotherhood, pp. 43Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2018