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DUT Drama Studies Presents Prof Lewis Nkosi’s “The Black Psychiatrist”

DUT Drama Studies Presents Prof Lewis Nkosi’s “The Black Psychiatrist”

The Durban University of Technology, in arrangement with the Dramatic, Artistic and Literary Rights Organisation (DALRO), presents The Black Psychiatrist, an exciting play which will be staged at the DUT City Campus from Saturday, 27 April to Tuesday, 30 April 2013.

Directed by DUT Drama and Production Studies Department HoD; Professor Deborah Lutge, the production is an adaptation of South African literary great Professor Lewis Nkosi’s 1983 play of the same name. The Black Psychiatrist explores a complex love story of an interracial couple.

Elaborating further on what the play entails, Prof Lutge said “the work is a flirtation filled with sexual tension, awkward embarrassments, squirming excitement, knowing mirth and impactful ironies – all polarized by gender, race and culture.”

“It’s as if Nkosi looked at the country in order to capture both our history and our present in one act, an act or action made analogous through the balance of power that shifts between race and gender with ingenious charm, grace and a few shocking secrets,” she added.

Prof Nkosi, who was born on 5 December 1936 in Chesterville, Durban, passed away on 5 September 2010. He became distinguished in the 1950s for his outstanding writing in Drum, a magazine founded in 1951 by and for African writers. He authored three books, including Mating Birds which, although banned by the apartheid South African government, received worldwide acclaim. A prolific writer, Prof Nkosi also wrote essays, short stories as well as plays for radio and theatre.

After completing his basic education, Prof Nkosi enrolled at the then ML Sultan Technical College. In April 2012, DUT conferred a posthumous Doctor of Technology on the writer in recognition of his immense contribution to South African literature.

Staging The Black Psychiatrist at DUT was the brainchild of Professor Graham Stewart, the Deputy Dean of DUT’s Faculty of Arts and Design, in consultation with Lewis Nkosi’s widow Professor Astrid Starck-Adler, who will open the South African premiere of the play. The season is short so set aside an evening to see this beautiful Nkosi tour de force.

The production starts showing from Saturday April 27, 2013 to Tuesday April 30, 2013 at 7pm. Tickets cost R50 for adults, R15 for students and R10 for block booking of scholars. Parking is available inside the boom gate (corner of Khuzimpi Shezi (Williams) Road and Anton Lembede (Smith) Street) at the DUT City Campus.

– Naledi Hlefane

Pictured: Liesl Coppin and Ntando Mncube in the Black Psychiatrist. Picture courtesy of Val Adamson.

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