WAITING FOR NELSON – SOUTH AFRICAN PLAYS
“Sometimes, life isn’t simply black and white.”
It has been 40 years since the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. Set in post apartheid South Africa, 21 years after the first ever democratic elections, the production centres on a couple who are faced with issues directly associated with issues that have historically, that currently and will probably affect future South Africans: RACE.
This play places a magnifying glass on a topic that still dominates societal discourse in this day & age – the colour of the next person’s skin. The aura and significance of the year 1994 came with many promises – many of which haven’t been fulfilled. The ‘race issue’, however, is one that every human being is capable of contributing towards solving, through simply undergoing a change in ways of thought – we just haven’t realized this yet. Waiting for Nelson is an important production that delivers a fresh avenue to be explored in the quest of achieving the sacred idea of a ‘rainbow nation’, through planting a seed of confrontation, change and redefinition.
When the theatre confronts us with brutal situations where ‘the life mask cracks and falls away’ it can expose an ‘intimate layer’ which returns us to common human truths.
After having its debut at the Roodepoort Theatre as part of the 2014 Youth Arts Festival (where the show won best drama of the festival), it went on to be performed at The South African State Theatre as part of the annual Youth Arts Festival, on the Fringe Programme. The show then went on to be performed to a sold out audience at The Market Laboratory later that same year. It was also read at the 2015 ASSITEJ/IATA annual Youth Theatre and Dance Festival at Artscape. After being performed at the first ever East London Arts Festival and being invited to the DUT’s Courtyard Theatre in 2016 as well as being selected to be a part of the SA Shorts II: #2MINUTE NOODLES, an initiative by UJ Arts and Culture, supported by Wordfest and the National Arts Festival where a 2 minute version of the show was read at the 2017 National Arts Festival, this provocative in your face production is ready to entertain you beyond your wildest imagination! This show is not a mirror of society, but rather a hammer with which to shape it.
FURTHER PRODUCTION HISTORY
Brescia House School, Johannesburg, South Africa – 2019
Read more about playwright Mbasa Tsetsana
Author: Mbsasa Tsetsana
Genre: Political drama script, South African plays
Type: Full length one act play
Number of actors: Eight, 8
Ages of the actors: Young adults 20’s-30’s
Suitable for: PG 14 – language
Set: Simple – Stage with a table and chairs
Level of Difficulty: 7/10 – the energy involved in this type of play is always very high.
Read a Sample of the Script
Cost is $8 for this award winning script.
Contact Off The Wall Plays with any queries about Waiting for Nelson
Buy a Performance License for Waiting for Nelson
Copyright March 2014 Mbasa Tsetsana and Off The Wall Play Publishers
Like this play? Other topical South African and African American Plays
Faith – an abused woman’s story in one act
The Pen – South African play script about love, reality and fantasy
The Pump Room – a post apartheid play
