CAPE TOWN - A new play, My Cape Town, aims to showcase the joy, resilience and community spirit of growing up on the Cape Flats.
The production is currently running at the Sneddon Theatre in Durban until 16 August.
The play’s author, Pat Pillai, says it celebrates a community that triumphed despite the trauma of forced removals.
“While lots has been written about the forced removals all those years ago, I don’t think there was enough written about the people who triumphed and loved and laughed and lived thereafter.
“People who made community in those displaced communities. And I grew up on the Cape Flats. And I remember wonderful times of song and celebration and triumph. And that’s what I capture.”
Pillai says it is important for young people to experience this history beyond the classroom.
“It’s very important that our youth don’t just get a history lesson, as important as it is in school, but to actually experience characters, or those that I’ve created, who lived this life, who then bring it to life on stage.
“And they get a visceral experience and laugh along and sometimes even cry a little bit as they remember perhaps what their parents and grandparents experienced all those decades ago.”