Blu Mankuma as Zack (left) and John Destry Adams as Morrie in a scene from The Blood Knot, directed by
Ernie King and produced by the Sepia Players.

‘Blood Knot’ dramatizes
the conflict of apartheid

If Sharpeville, 1960, exploded a
smouldering struggle into flames,
stirred liberal consciences and
began the world isolation of
apartheid, it was Soweto, 1976, that
signalled a new intensity in the
South African freedom struggle. In
1977 the flames are all around
Vorster’s fascist regime, and the
arms that he used against the
blacks at Sharpeville, are now
pointed back at him.

It was a farsighted white who
could see the shape of the struggle
to come from the_ white
supremacist vantage point of the
early 1960’s. And it was a talented
one who could present that vision
in an art form that could pass the
censor’s hand.

And that, coupled with a fine
production by Vancouver’s Sepia
Players, makes Athol Fugard’s
The Blood Knot the most important
drama presently playing in
Vancouver.

Co-sponsored by the Southern
Africa Action Coalition, the Blood
Knot is the story of two brothers of
mixed blood, one black, the other
white, whose interaction plays out

Petitioning |
on Saturday

The B.C. Peace Council an-
nounced that a special effort will
he made this Saturday, Sept. 24 in
Vancouver’s Gastown to collect
hundreds of names.

Those able to take part in the
petitioning are asked to come to
the Peace Council office, Rm. 712,
207 W. Hastings St., (Dominion
Rank Building) anytime between 1-
3 p.m.

THE BLOOD KNOT. By Athol
Fugard. Starring Blu Mankuma and
John Destry Adams. Directed by Ernie
King. At the Flamingo Theatre, 2843
East Hastings, Vancouver. Tickets,
phone 251-1045.

the conflict between white and
black society.

But the Blood Knot is not an
ordinary production. The two
brothers are the only characters in
theseven scene, three-act play that
takes place on a single set, a dingy
one room shack in the black
township of Korsten, near Port
Elizabeth, South Africa. The two
person dialogueis characteristic of
Fugard, but it places heavy
demands on John Destry Adams
and Blu Mankuma, the fine actors
from the Sepia Players who
develop the complex story line with
wit and emotion.

Mankuma is outstanding as
Zack, the black brother, illiterate
and ignorant, whose self-shame is
reflected in his lust for a white
woman. Morrie, the white brother,
is caught between two worlds,
rejected by black and white alike.
Morrie’s inner desire to be white,
while drawn by conscience to his
black brother’s side, is symbolic of
the dilemma of the white liberal in
those moving years in South
Africa. “I am not a Judas,”’ he
exclaimed over the body of his
brother, only to turn his back on
Zack. some scenes later, to pursue
white society.

After a lengthy introduction into
the characters of Zack and Morrie,
the brothers take up a_pen-pal
relationship with a woman in a
neighboring township. The woman
turns out to be white, however, a
fact that strikes terror in the

New play ‘distorts’
Paul Robeson’s life

NEW YORK — Paul Robeson Jr.
has denounced a new one-
character play. supposedly based
on the life and work of his late
father, Paul Robeson.

The play, starring well-known
actor James Earl Jones in the title
role, recently concluded rehear-
sals in Los Angeles and was
scheduled to open in Louisville,
Kentucky September 15 before
going on tour in several U.S. cities
and finally playing on Broadway in
February.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 23

“T have read the script of the
play and it is a fictionalized and
srossly distorted portray of Paul
Robeson. It is my opinion that the
script is a crude attempt to
misrepresent my father and
therefore. I am exploring the
possibilities of legal action against
those involved in this project.”

The play is reported to have an
anti-Soviet and anti-Communist
slant. in direct contradiction to
Robeson’s life and stated beliefs.

, 1977—Page 1C

brothers, but at once evokes their
desire.

Under pressure from his brother,
Zack admits his shame and comes
to terms with his identity. He
offers the woman to Morrie, who
begins a pursuit of white respec-
tability through the illusion of a
romance with the pen-pal.

The drama climaxes ‘after the
brothers have squandered their
savings preparing to meet the
woman, who in the meantime had
abandoned them for a white man.
They take out their frustrations in
a game where Zack takes his place
as a black worker and Morrie takes
the role of the white rulers. The
brothers act out the racial struggle
in South Africa, revealing the real
hostility that apartheid has driven
between them. At first it is Morrie
who takes the role of the aggressor
but as the game ends, Zack, and
black South Africa have taken the
offensive.

In 1962, in the aftermath of
Sharpeville, Fugard’s drama
created a _ sensation. His first
major production, the Blood Knot
became the first South African
play to break thecolor barrier, as a
black and white shared the same
stage. ;

The subtle revolutionary theme
was set in the overt poverty and
deprivation of the black world
under apartheid. As it was ac-
claimed throughout South Africa,
the Blood Knot became a dramatic
denunciation of racism and
apartheid.

Soon after, the South African
security police began to lean on the
Afrikaner playwright and although
his future plays still-reflected the
liberal view of apartheid, Fugard
bent to pressure and dropped the
revolutionary theme that makes
the Blood Knot a_ powerful
statement.

It is that revolutionary theme,
however, which allows this play to
stand the test of time. Fifteen
years after stirring South African
and European audiences, it is as
relevant as ever.

Directed by Ernie King, the
Blood knot will be staged daily,
except Sundays, to October 1, at
the Flamingo Theatre, 2843 East
Hastings, across from the PNE.
Part of your $3 admission will go to
SAAC, to help them carry on other
solidarity work.

There is one complaint: three
anda half hoursisa little long to sit
onthe hard chairs in the Flamingo
Theatre. It’s worth it, but bring a
cushion.

—Fred Wilson

fg -
‘Art should mirror

life and struggle’

The American photographer Louis Stettner, whose portfolios,
including Women’ dnd Workers’’ have won international acclaim,
recently gave an address to a class of photography students in which
he outlined his views on the social responsibility of the photographel
as an artist, to his society. Below are excerpts from concluding part
of that address. Stettner calls.on photographers to take part in, aM
reflect, the struggles of people in their work.

I would like to mention different, more positive alternatives for
the artist photographer. It does not mean abandoning an interest in
experimental form, freshness of vision and great originality 1
seeing. On the contrary, these are essential. I am talking about 4
bold confrontation with reality that requires the utmost craft and
discipline in the technique of photography and _ its complex
aesthetics. I am asking young and old photographers everywhere !
examine the possibility of going out into the real world (which does
not mean just the streets, but also the most intimate work place:
friends, lover, family, etc.) and try to examine and interpret with
your hearts and minds open. Do not just observe it but actually e*
perience the struggles, boredom and joys of your fellow humat
beings. Make it alsoa real trip of discovery.

I have found that truly great photographs are the result of 4
photographer experiencing, actually living with his subject matter in
an intense, deep relationship (a creative process that sometimes
starts long before the photograph was taken), until it finally jells int
an act of discovery, a sudden illumination that is simply the result 0
the often laborious growing awareness preceding it. The
photograph’s originality and vitality comes not just from the
freshness of vision, but also from the dynamic give and take betwee!
the photographer and life.

~

Nor do I want you to abandon your subjective outlook upon the
world. On the contrary, it is your own precious uniqueness in seeing
and feeling as a personality that will give the photograph its ultimate
value. I ask only that it be a deeply thorough collaboration betwee?
you and the world around you. The value of your vision will also.
depend on the profoundity of your feelings and understand.

I always recall the painter Van Gogh writing to his brother The? |
to send him novels, so he could better understand the world. I woulé
like to suggest the same for photographers; that we:do not limit.
ourselves to cameras and darkroom technique but also understan@ |
the world in terms of its historical development, to be aware of clas®
and social struggles, as well as the latest developments in literature
and the other arts. I visualize the accomplished photographer 2°
being both profoundly human and extremely cultured. He also ha’
the highest moral values that are shared between his own conscience?
and responsibility to his audience which is the rest of mankind.

- 26;
Manhattan” from Stettner®
and thé
m the

“Pneumatic drill | operator,
24-photograph portfolio “‘Workers.’’ Both “Workers”
22-print portfolio “Women” are available at $12 each fro
r Daily World Buy Line, 205 W. 19th St., N.Y.C. 10011.

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