JOHANNESBURG - The Soweto Theatre is putting on a renewed production of Sarafina!
It hopes this will rekindle the memory of the 1976 Soweto Uprising. It's been 50 years since the youth rose against the apartheid regime.
There are concerns that their sacrifice has been lost on current generations.
The Theatre said a new production was needed for a new audience, but the message remains.
Sarafina! director, Mpho Molepo, said they were not trying to do away with the late Mbongeni Ngema’s version of the production.
"We re-put in the production together, not taking away from what he did in making it, but we are also trying to think about how we can do it much more easier with the young people.
“So we let the young people feel free not to be held hostage by the past of the production itself, so when people watch it, they will always feel it looks new.
“But we did nothing to the script itself because we cannot rewrite it. I think overall production is fresh, but I think our focus for me, mainly as a director, has been on the story, what does it mean, why was it told, what is the purpose of us telling it, and do we want to get from the audience, or what do we want them to feel when watching it,” Molepo said.