Patience Bambalele

Patience Bambalele

Sophiatown, a stage play that evokes bad memories of the relocation of people from the suburb in 1955, is back by popular demand.

After its tour around the country, this interesting show opens at the Catalina Theatre in Durban today and runs until August 3.

Sophiatown was a place of cultural diversity. It was the place where artists, writers and musicians flourished, against the odds, in an atmosphere of racial tolerance.

The play takes you back to the good old days.

It introduces you to the real life in Sophiatown. The music, the fashion and the lifestyle all come back to life in the show.

Until its destruction by government decree in the mid-1950's Sophiatown was the Chicago of South Africa, a vibrant community that produced not only gangsters and shebeen queens but leading journalists, writers, musicians and politicians and gave urban African culture its rhythm and style.

Sophiatown shows family life in Mamariti's house as a conduit for the forces of history.

All the characters of Mamariti's house are fully rounded, convincing human beings.

Tickets cost R75.