The island
Directed by Xabiso Zweni
Produced by Anele Penny
With Fiks Mahola (as John) and Anele Penny (as Winston)
Written by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona
Staged in St Stephen’s Hall, Grattan Road, New Brighton, 23-26 October 2024
The play was first performed on 2 July 1973, directed by Athol Fugard with John Kani (as John) and Winston Ntshona (as Winston)

Fiks Mahola (as John) and Anele Penny (as Winston)
The island is a play about two prisoners on Robben Island. In between the hardships they had to endure, they decided to stage a play in prison. The play they chose was Sophocles’s Antigone.
Antigone is a play about the mythical daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes. When her brother Polynices is killed after leading a failed insurrection, Creon, the new king of Thebes, decrees that Polynices should not be buried. Antigone disobeys the decree and buries her brother. When brought to trial, Antigone admits guilt, but tells the court that divine laws are more important than those made by humans.
A play that remembers New Brighton
In scene three of The island, Winston helps John to imagine his release: “Outside, John, outside that gate, New Brighton will be waiting for you. Your mother, your father, Princess and the children ….” And a few lines later: “Your people will take you home. Thirty-eight Grattan Street, John! Remember it?”
Why New Brighton?
New Brighton is a township in the greater area of Gqeberha, formerly known as Port Elizabeth and now part of Nelson Mandela Bay. New Brighton has a history steeped in the struggle against apartheid. It had already been declared a “black only” site in 1902. The website South African History Online says:
During the evening of 16 December 1961, five bombs were detonated in Port Elizabeth. The MK High Command selected targets for saboteurs to hit when the phase for military confrontation and insurgency began, with the primary targets being power stations and government buildings. For instance, an electrical substation in New Brighton, the building of the New Brighton Labour Bureau and offices of the Bantu Administration Board were all bombed. Between December 1961 and June 1963, more than 200 installations were attacked, with a majority of these being in the Eastern Cape. This may be because Port Elizabeth was the centre for sabotage training for MK cadres.
In his book Apartheid’s Stalingrad, Rory Riordan details the training of cadres in Port Elizabeth in the early days of the armed struggle. So many cadres from New Brighton ended up on Robben Island that the island was jokingly referred to as another suburb of New Brighton.
Perhaps of equal importance was that both John Kani and Winston Ntshona had grown up in New Brighton. Other notable people who grew up in New Brighton include the musician Zolani Mahola, former National Prosecuting Authority head Vusi Pikoli, the artist George Pemba and chief of the South African Navy, Monde Lobese.
Seeing The island in Grattan Street, New Brighton
The island was produced by Anele Penny in cooperation with the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex (MBTC). The MBTC consists of what used to be called the PE Opera House and the Barn Theatre, both of which are in the city centre near the harbour.
The island could have been staged there, but to take it back to Grattan Street, New Brighton, was wonderful. The St Stephen’s Hall is only a few houses from 38 Grattan Street, mentioned in the play. The hall was also extensively used by the South African Council of Churches during the dark apartheid years. So, from 23 to 26 October 2024, Grattan Street in New Brighton proudly welcomed guests. It was special.
Those of us who worked to end apartheid remember the days we spent in township churches and church halls before the dawn of democracy. On Saturday, we were in a church hall in the very township that inspired the vision of hope in this play. Next door, in the church, there was a funeral. At times, I was not sure whether the background music in the hall was possibly from next door or played over the speakers in the hall. I suspect the former, and that lifted the entire experience. George Irvine, a former Methodist bishop in the region and active anti-apartheid worker, also mentioned that he had experienced a certain sense of déjà vu while attending the play.
From New Brighton to the world
After the play, Rory Riordan told the story of how The island came about. Actors John Kani and Winston Ntshona had approached Athol Fugard with the idea of making a living from their theatre work. Fugard then booked a slot at the newly opened Space Theatre in Cape Town, an initiative of the photographer Brian Astbury and his actress wife, Yvonne Bryceland.
Fugard, Kani and Ntshona hammered out a play about someone who had to have his picture taken in a photographic studio. It was called Sizwe Banzi is dead. The play opened to huge acclaim in Cape Town on 8 October 1972. The success was such that the team was invited to go to London, but with the request for another two-hander to accompany Sizwe Banzi.
That was when Fugard, Kani and Ntshona workshopped and created The island. The play opened in the Space in July 1973, but under another title: Die hodoshe span. It was simply too dangerous to announce to the apartheid government that they had written a play about one of the most infamous prisons in the world.

When the hodoshe are doing an inspection
Hodoshe is what the inmates called the prison guards. Die span is Afrikaans for “the team”. Die hodoshe span would simply sound like the team led by a prison guard, but in Xhosa the original meaning of hodoshe refers to a carrion fly, which lays its eggs in dead bodies.

A poster for the 2000 Royal National Theatre production (left) and the same scene in New Brighton (right)
Both Sizwe Banzi is dead and The island opened to great acclaim at the Royal Court Theatre in London, the latter on Saturday 29 December 1973. There, in the UK, the correct title, The island, was first used. The company was then invited to perform in the United States as well.
World-class theatre in New Brighton
Fiks Mahola and Anele Penny were brilliant under the direction of Xabiso Zweni. Mahola and Penny got the timing just right. Like so many plays that Fugard had a hand in, The island jumps between funny and pathos in quick succession.

Antigone’s speech
Antigone’s speech is always a sad moment, and King Creon’s cruelty a stark reminder that rulers need to have limits to their powers.

King Creon’s speech
Fiks Mahola took on an Afrikaans accent and sounded just like a National Party politician while he performed his soliloquy. Awesome.

Xabiso Zweni
Melissa Riordan, who had seen the play performed by Kani and Ntshona, said Mahola and Penny may even have been better. I could not compare, but I certainly hope that The island will get to be seen at numerous arts festivals in the next year. Should the team do the play in a theatre near you, make a point of seeing The island. These guys are ready to take on the world again!
Relevance
Does The island still have relevance today? I’d say yes. Just as Antigone and Creon had something to say to the National Party government in the seventies – and to the UK and the USA – nearly 2 000 years after their fictitious demise, so too will the words of three men from Gqeberha continue to speak about suffering and abuse now, 50-plus years after the play was first performed.
My partner was particularly touched by the scene where the wives, who had driven 500 miles (800 kilometres) from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, were only allowed to wave to their husbands after disembarking from the ferry on Robben Island. After they had seen each other across a distance, the prisoners were marched back to their cells by the hodoshe and the women were made to return to the mainland by ferry. That was then, but cruelty and human suffering are still among us. Go and see Fiks Mahola and Anele Penny in The island when you can, where you can.
Images
Poster at the top: Produced by the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex
Poster of the 2000 Royal National Theatre production: via WikiMedia
Cover of Apartheid’s Stalingrad by Jacana Media
All other pictures by Izak de Vries, taken during a performance in New Brighton with permission from Xabiso Zweni