Woza Albert!
“Woza Albert! is the unusual international hit play, written and performed by two Black South Africans, which has stunned audiences in both the Black townships and white suburbs of Johannesburg, and from London to New York.... Percy Mtwa and Mbongeni Ngena, two Black former music hall performers, have crafted a series of sharply-etched sketches--alternately satiric, humorous and deeply moving. Their revue is organized around the ironic premise that Jesus Christ (Morena in Sotho) returns to the self-proclaimed ‘Christian' nation of South Africa. In this innovative BBC film, the two author/actors themselves show us how Woza Albert! grew out of improvisations based on their own life experiences in South Africa. Extensive excerpts from the play are intercut with actual visits by the authors to the markets, labor exchanges, and train stations, the open-air barbers, youthful street vendors, and aged scavengers who inspired the sketches. We begin to feel the...unique experience of what it means to be Black in South Africa today....” California Newsreel