#TheHerald180 | Eastern Cape’s proud tradition in the performing arts

The performing arts have always a played vital role in the Eastern Cape — not least of all because the National Arts Festival has been hosted in Makhanda for the past 51 years.

It has been covered extensively with news and reviews by The Herald which has showcased the cream of national stage talent, musicians and artists along with international names who annually make their way to the City of Saints.

But few may be aware that 45 years before The Herald was established, a performance of William Shakespeare’s iconic Hamlet was staged at Ford Frederick by British soldiers who were stationed there.

And having the perfect setting to do so, they created their very own Elsinore on the hill where the fort still stands.

To mark the 200th anniversary of this performance, the Port Elizabeth Shakespearean Festival staged a critically-acclaimed production of the play in the fort itself in 2000 with the audience seated within its walls.

And true to its theme of a ghostly character, Hamlet’s slain father, stalking the ramparts of his domain — there was an incident just prior to a performance during which a chair suddenly flew up into the air and hit the actor playing Polonius, the late Bob Law, on the head and injuring him, despite it being a relatively windless night.

Appropriate then, that coincidentally coinciding with another milestone event, The Herald’s 180th anniversary, an interactive and shortened version of Hamlet is being staged by Pearson High School in Summerstrand with headboy Liyabona Malgas in the title role.

The play runs at the school until Thursday (May 8).

Little more than a stone’s throw from Fort Frederick is the Mandela Bay Theatre Complex — formerly the PE Opera House, which holds the honour of being the oldest operating theatre on the African continent.

And three streets which border the Donkin Reserve where the complex is situated have been renamed after three of the city’s greatest theatrical sons, John Kani, Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona who established The Serpent Players in New Brighton in 1965.

Fugard, once described by Time magazine as the world’s greatest living playwright, died earlier this year.

Among many stage works, the acclaimed playwright penned Sizwe Banzi is Dead — first performed at St Stephen’s Anglican Church Hall in New Brighton 53 years ago, The Island and Master Harold and the Boys — for which Kani and Ntshona, who died in 2018, won Tony Awards.

Kani, who has performed on stage globally and in film, carved a new performing version of himself in 2018 by starring in the Marvel Comic superhero movie Black Panther.

The Herald