Woza Albert! | |
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Written by | Percy Mtwa Mbongeni Ngema Barney Simon |
Date premiered | 1981 |
Place premiered | Market Theatre, Johannesburg |
Genre | Political satire|Workshop |
Setting | South Africa |
Woza Albert! ("Come Albert!") is a satirical South African political play written by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema, and Barney Simon in 1981 and first performed at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. The play is a two-man show that contains 26 vignettes.
The play imagines the second coming of Jesus Christ during the apartheid-era as experienced by a variety of black South Africans. Written as a piece of protest theatre, Woza Albert! sought to confront the inequalities and oppression of apartheid in South Africa. Woza Albert! was turned into a film and is a prime example of Workshop Theatre movement in South Africa and became one of the most produced South African plays within South Africa and internationally. The play is highly praised for its use of humour and ability to illuminate and critique the systematic oppression of black South Africans under the apartheid regime.