Photo Flash: Smoke & Mirrors Present Reading of OLITYELWE

OLITYELWE (The Forgotten) comes to Washington D.C. after performing off-Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in New York and touring internationally in partnership with the US State Department in South Africa and to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Summerhall.

Check out photos from the show below!

Using music, dance and the sounds of Soweto, South Africa, OLITYELWE asks do you have the right to choose your own death? How does religion and culture own your morality? Heartbreaking and hilarious, the play centers on the emotional resolve of Thandi, a college graduate living with HIV, whose controversial decision to end her life has moving repercussions for her devoted friend Mandisi. As aspirations and disappointments surface inside Thandi's tiny shack the play explores issues of poverty, religion, distribution of wealth, politics and health care in modern South Africa.

Zoey Martinson wrote OLITYELWE after working as a humanitarian aid worker at a refugee camp in West Africa and then traveled to South Africa to interview people living in the informal settlements around Soweto.

Photos courtesy of Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative

Jonathan David Martin, Zoey Martinson, and Yusef Miller

Zoey Martinson and Yusef Miller

Yusef Miller, Zoey Martinson, and Jonathan David Martin