Supported by the Western Cape Education Department, Kani’s Missing… aims to promote social cohesion, good citizenship and empowerment through the arts.

The high quality production, by South Africa’s theatre icon, Dr Kani, is aimed at Grade 12 English learners from the greater Cape Town area, who will get the opportunity to experience the play which is taught as literature. The play will be presented as a full stage production that will also appeal to the general public.

The playwright, actor and director will present his set work Nothing but the Truth and his latest play Missing…  Dr Kani is making his directing and acting debut at Artscape for the first time in his career. This will not only be a historical moment for the theatre centre but after every performance of Nothing but the Truth, Dr Kani will come onto the stage to engage with teachers and students to talk about the text of the play. Kani’s acclaimed play Missing… premiered at the Baxter Theatre centre in 2014 and is also a celebration of his life’s work which will run concurrently with the set work production.

“The purpose of the educational program is to assist grade 12 learners academically by presenting plays which are taught as literature on a theatre stage, therefore putting it in its intended setting”, says Marlene Le Roux, chief executive officer for Artscape. “We will also be introducing learners to theatre and drama production of a high quality, thereby building the audience of the future.”

Well-known director Janice Honeyman once again teams with Kani for his latest hit play. The story follows the life of Robert Khalipa (played by Kani) who has been living in exile in Stockholm, Sweden, for over 30 years with his wife, Anna Olson (Susan Danford) and their daughter Ayanda (Buhle Ngaba). Anna has inherited her father’s large electronic and communications company and Ayanda is a young doctor working in a hospital in Stockholm. Something that Robert has been waiting for all his life in exile has finally happened: Mandela has been released.

South Africa is on the road to democracy. Going home has become a reality. Instead of a celebration, this new situation becomes the cancer that threatens to break the Khalipha family apart. To add insult to injury, Robert is not called home by the ANC to be part of the negotiations and the country’s future. What follows is a plot full of intrigue, lies, backstabbing, conspiracy and political in-fighting. A young comrade, Peter Tshabalala (played by Apollo Ntshoko) is Robert’s assistant in the ANC office in Stockholm and he plays an important role in the isolation of Robert by the organisation. How can the release of Nelson Mandela be the reason for this family’s break up?

Missing… premiered at the Baxter Theatre in 2014 and has been performed to great acclaim in Johannesburg and Pretoria and has just returned to Cape Town following its success at the Iberoamerican Festival in Bogota, Columbia.

For more information on production and ticket bookings (ranging from R40 to R80 per person), phone Sedrico Husselman on +27 21 410 9986 or email [email protected].