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Sher and Kani are coming BacktoSA!

The Tempest will premier at the Baxter before it moves to Stratford

A new production of Shakespeare's The Tempest starring two South African greats will run at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from January 15 to February 6 2009 before moving to the Royal Shakespeare Company's Courtyard Theatre in
Statford-upon-Avon and on to a UK tour.

A collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Baxter Theatre Centre, this production, filled with African ritual, music and dance, will feature a totally South African cast.

Director Janice Honeyman (who directed the acclaimed RSC production of Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye in 1988) brings two of the country's most celebrated actors on stage together for the first time, Antony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban.

Antony Sher said: “Janice Honeyman and I have been discussing this production for several years and I'm thrilled that the RSC is now making it happen, along with the Baxter, which is the leading theatre in Cape Town (my birthplace) and arguably in the whole of South Africa.

“In Shakespeare's time, witchcraft and magic were part of society, but this is no longer true in the modern world, except in certain places. Our plan is to use African ritual to release the magic in the play.

It's also been a lifelong ambition of mine to be onstage with the legendary South African actor John Kani. So this feels like all my dreams coming true.”

This is more than a homecoming for the RSC Associate Artist Sher, who started with the company in 1982 and went on to garner award-winning performances in Richard III and Stanley, as well as the title roles in Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth. His 2005 production of Primo sold out before it opened at the Baxter Sanlam Studio, receiving great audience and media acclaim, earning him the Fleur du Cap best solo performance award for that year.

This project also has powerful personal meaning for John Kani, who said: “What a pleasure … I have the chance to make theatre with my dear friends [lighting designer] Mannie [Manin], Janice and Tony and get to work with the Baxter and the RSC again.” Kani played Claudius in the Baxter Theatre Centre’s production of Hamlet which traveled to the RSC’s Complete Works Festival in 2006, where it played to sold-out houses and five-star reviews.

Kani believes the resonance of Shakespeare for South African audiences is crucial: “We have a history of colonisation by the British. Through missionaries at schools, we were taught to speak good English, the Queen's language. Why Shakespeare is relevant to us as Africans is that he tells stories of great kingdoms, great wars and battles, great love stories, stories of hatred, good versus evil, mythology. These things make up the African culture. What makes Shakespeare's work classic is that it still has relevance today in African society.”

Joining Sir Antony Sher as Prospero and John Kani as Caliban, the formidable cast of South African actors will include John Kani's son, Atandwa Kani, and all three Brett Goldin Bursary recipients – Omphile Molusi (2007) and Thambi Mbongo and Nicholas Pauling (2008 award winners). Director Janice Honeyman says: “Tony (Sher) and I sat around a barbeque one mid-summer evening in 2000 in London, and I broached my ‘African’ Tempest to him.

"It's our play! It's African! It explores colonialism, paternalism, the master / servant relationship, corruption – trickery and plotting – reconciliation and forgiveness, and most of all the appropriation, not only of land, but also of cultural and religious beliefs! Doesn't that sound like home?

"Add to that, indigenous African music and the astounding visual images that are traditionally African, and we can give The Tempest a terrifically exciting interpretation.

The midsummer night was blue and flashing with ideas and electricity. We had to do this!”

Antony Sher

Knighted for his services for acting and writing, and an RSC Associate Artist, Antony Sher first worked for the RSC in 1982. His many roles for the company have included his award-winning performance in Richard III as well as the title roles in Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac and Macbeth.

He played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and Iago in Othello with Sello Maake Ka-Ncube in the title role. In 2005 he directed Fraser Grace’s play Breakfast with Mugabe for the RSC. His own play The Giant was recently premiered at the Hampstead Theatre in London.

He played Disraeli in the film Mrs Brown alongside Judi Dench. His other credits include Stanley and Primo for the National Theatre, both of which transferred to Broadway and both won major awards. Antony Sher's books include the memoirs Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa, (co-written with his partner, the director Gregory Doran in 1997), Year of the King (1985) and his autobiography Beside Myself (2002).

He last performed at the Baxter Theatre Centre in January 2005 when his one man show, Primo, sold out before it opened, and for which he won the Fleur du Cap Best Solo Performance Award.

John Kani

An internationally recognised, multiple award-winning actor, director and playwright.

John Kani’s impressive list of theatre credits includes Claudius in Baxter Theatre's Hamlet which played in Stratford during the RSC's Complete Works Festival as well as in South Africa, Driving Miss Daisy, Othello, The Blood Knot, The Island, Waiting for Godot, Playland, Duet for One, Sizwe Banzi is Dead and My Children! My Africa! The Island, which won the Toronto Theatre Award 2001 for Best Production, was co-written by John, Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona – the same team also wrote Sizwe Banzi is Dead.

John won the Best Actor Tony Award on Broadway for his performances in these plays. In 2004 he performed in the Greek classic Antigone at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and then at Baxter Theatre Centre.

His films include The Wild Geese, The Grass is Singing, Marigolds in August and Victims of Apartheid, His own play Nothing But The Truth won Fleur du Cap Awards for Best Actor for himself and Best New South African Play in 2002.

Janice Honeyman

The director has had a prolific and successful career. In 2002 she was nominated for the Best Director Award in the Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards and won an FNB Vita Award in the same category for The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

Last year she directed the full-scale world premiere of Chris van Wyk's Shirley, Goodness and Mercy which won three Naledi Awards, Patrick Shanley's Doubt and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Baxter Theatre Centre, the Market Theatre and the State Theatre.