Magnet Theatre & Cape Town Opera to Develop HEART OF REDNESS Stage Adaptation

Magnet Theatre is excited to announce a collaboration project with Cape Town Opera (CTO). The Magnet trainees and some of the young CTO Studio Members have come together under the direction of Mark Fleishman (assisted by Thando Doni) to create a musical version of the Zakes Mda novel HEART OF REDNESS.

Shortlisted for the prestigious Commonwealth Writers Prize, HEART OF REDNESS tells a story of South African village life during a notorious episode from the country's past. Camugu, who left for America during apartheid, has returned to Johannesburg. Disillusioned by the problems of the new democracy, he travels to the remote Eastern Cape where, in the nineteenth century, a teenage prophetess named Nonqawuse commanded the Xhosa people to kill their cattle and burn their crops, promising that once they did so the spirits of their ancestors would rise and drive the occupying English into the ocean. The failed prophecy split the Xhosa into Believers and Unbelievers, dividing brother from brother, wife from husband, with devastating consequences.One hundred fifty years later, the two groups' decendants are at odds over plans to build a vast casino and tourist resort in the village, and Camugu is soon drawn into their heritage and their future.

Mda has kindly given permission for the novel to be adapted for this initial development phase. Composition is by Neo Muyanga, movement direction by Jennie Reznek and design by Craig Leo.