Quotes by John Kani - Page 2

It is ridiculous to think we can erase racism in South Africa, but through theater there can be a genuine attempt to move on with our lives and build a better country.
John Kani /
Erase
Genuine
Our Lives
Racism
South Africa
Theater
Africa
Attempt
Move On
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It is a troubled soul that forces the human being to act. It is some kind of gangrene within you, inside of you, that eats your soul, that forces you to save your soul.
John Kani /
Eats
Troubled
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I have never been attracted to television work. Even to appear in series and soapies. I have always appeared in theatre and major movies, writing plays and other things.
John Kani /
Work Movies Always
Appear
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I write about the human condition, as a South African. I sometimes see South Africa with the spectacles of the past and there will then be a political content in my writing.
John Kani /
Human Condition
South Africa
Spectacles
Condition
South African
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I couldn't really say that a repressive society would result in creative art. But somehow it does help, it is an ingredient, it acts as a Catalyst to a man who is committed.
John Kani /
Catalyst
Acts
Ingredient
Repressive
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I still remember the moment when my teacher, Mr. Budaza, walked into class and said, 'Today we are going to study 'Julius Caesar,' one of Shakespeare's most important plays.'
John Kani /
Teacher
Class
Julius
Study
Mr
Caesar
Plays
Shakespeare
Walked
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In South Africa in 1987, apartheid was still going strong. Some of the most brutal race laws had been relaxed, but they hadn't yet been repealed. There was still a lot of tension.
John Kani /
Apartheid
Brutal
Race
Relaxed
South Africa
Tension
Africa
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In Australia, I almost became a counsellor. At the end of each performance there would be a queue of sobbing people backstage. They all wanted to explain why they left South Africa.
John Kani /
South Africa
Backstage
Queue
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In 1990 there were about 300 scripts being written demanding the release of Nelson Mandela. And suddenly we watched Mandela walking out of prison. So those scripts had to be destroyed.
John Kani /
Destroyed
Nelson
Release
Scripts
Demanding
Mandela
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I used to wonder, when my grandmother would tell me what the wolf said to the jackal, how these animals can talk. And, she would say, 'in my stories, animals talk. Shut up and listen.'
John Kani /
Shut Up
Stories
Wonder
Animals
Shut
Wolf
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In 1973, 'Sizwe Banzi is Dead' and 'The Island,' which I co-wrote with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, transferred from The Royal Court Theatre to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End.
John Kani /
Court
Royal
Theatre
West
Ambassador
Dead
Island
Transferred
Winston
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'iNkaba' has made me famous in the living rooms of the people of my country. It was almost like being famous all over again. People stop me in the street and shopping malls to take pictures.
John Kani /
Being Famous
Malls
Rooms
Shopping
Famous Me People
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The exchange rate of the Rand against the dollar, pound or euro makes South Africa an attractive location. The positive side of this is it gives our artists and technicians an opportunity to work.
John Kani /
Opportunity
Positive
Attractive
Euro
Location
Rate
South
South Africa
Technicians
Africa
Artists
Side
Exchange
Dollar
Exchange Rate
Gives
Makes
Pound
Rand
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The government harasses everything. The government must keep a constant surveillance of all activities by black people in order to maintain their reign over them, especially when they are in a minority.
John Kani /
Reign
Surveillance
Activities
Maintain
Minority
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When western culture developed, we became detached from nature, detached from our relationship with the animals. We saw animals perhaps as only the rhino horn, the elephant's tusk, we saw it as making money.
John Kani /
Relationship
Detached
Making Money
Western
Western Culture
Animals
Became
Developed
Elephant
Saw
Horn
Making
Perhaps
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Any older actor knows the last great mountain to climb is to play King Lear and now, if I ever play Lear, I will have done the pre-preparation because I had to go into the play and read it over and over again.
John Kani /
Lear
Mountain
Actor
Again
Climb
Read
Older
Last
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I'd read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn't realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was - the great surging speeches Othello has.
John Kani /
Realised
English
Othello
Shakespeare
Started Reading
Surging
Text
Translated
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Other theaters exist here solely to entertain the white audience and keep South Africa on a par with what's going on in the West End or Broadway. The Market concerns itself with theater of this country, for this country.
John Kani /
Broadway
South Africa
Concerns
Entertain
Par
Solely
Theaters
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Our job as artists, we believe, is not to make changes in society. We don't have the ability to do that. We reflect life. We are the mirror of the society to look into. Our job is to raise questions, but we have no answers.
John Kani /
Ability
Answers
Questions
Artists
Life Society Look
Mirror
Raise
Reflect
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In any character you are given to play, be it evil/good/whatever character, you begin with self. You examine yourself and ruthlessly see similarities between you and the devil, or between you and the dictator, or between you and the kind man.
John Kani /
Devil
Dictator
Self
Begin
Examine
Similarities
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When I tried to do 'Waiting for Godot, it was such a controversy. I was tired of political theatre. All I wanted to do was 'Godot.' You know what happened? We were told we had messed up and politicised a classic that has nothing to do with S.A.
John Kani /
Controversy
Messed Up
Messed
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You found during apartheid a strange occurrence from the white folks themselves. There were those who did make a choice to speak out and stand and be counted in the army of human beings who believed in justice. And then there are those who left.
John Kani /
Apartheid
Army
Folks
Counted
Occurrence
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Before 1994, many South Africans used theater as a voice of protest against the government. But with the end of apartheid, like the artists who watched the fall of the Iron Curtain in Europe, theater had to find new voices and search for new issues.
John Kani /
Government
Apartheid
Europe
Fall
Iron
Iron Curtain
Protest
South
Theater
Used
Voice
Against
African
Artists
Before
Watched
Curtain
Search
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Inkaba' is about a feud between two South African families. They have been fighting for years, from one generation to the next. It's like those typical feuds you have in rural KwaZulu-Natal where, after a while, you do not even know why you are fighting.
John Kani /
Fighting
Typical
African
Feud
Generation
Rural
South African
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'Captain Marvel,' whereby the steel trap is challenged, where the hero is a heroine, where the most powerful person who has the welfare of the future of the human race is a woman. What else can it be? Because that was the role of my mother when I was a kid.
John Kani /
Hero
Human Race
Most Powerful
Powerful
Steel
Welfare
Captain
Challenged
Heroine
Marvel
Trap
Whereby
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If we'd lived in England or America we'd have told stories abut our lives and nobody would have called it protest theatre. But the reality of South Africa was the arrests and detentions and oppression - we could not escape that, so we decided to take it on.
John Kani /
America
Decided
England
Oppression
Our Lives
Protest
Reality
South Africa
Stories
Theatre
Africa
Arrest
Nobody
Escape
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Theatre has had a very important role in changing South Africa. There was a time when all other channels of expression were closed that we were able to break the conspiracy of silence, to educate people inside South Africa and the outside world. We became the illegal newspaper.
John Kani /
Break
Conspiracy
Educate
Expression
Illegal
Outside World
Silence
South
South Africa
Theatre
Inside
Time World People
Africa
Became
Changing
Channels
Closed
Important Role
Newspaper
Outside
Role
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Over the years, many young actors have approached me: Vusi Kunene, Sello Maake ka Ncube, and Seputla Sebogodi. They all said, 'Hey Bra John, let's do 'The Island and we want you to direct.' But somehow, my heart was not in it or I was busy with something else, so I'd say, 'ja, ja, we'll do it.'
John Kani /
Busy
Direct
Hey
Young Actors
Bra
Island
John
Somehow
Something Else
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I remember the words of my grandmother who died at 102. I remember my great mother, Grand Brika, who died at the age of 106. They talked to us all the time. And my grandmother even lied to me. She said there was royalty. She said that my great-great-great grandfather was the king of the outer Thembu.
John Kani /
Died
Lied
Royalty
Time Age Great
Grand
Outer
Talked
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What does Macbeth want? What does Shakespeare want? What does Othello want? What does James want? What does Arthur Miller want when he wrote? Those things you incorporate and create in the character, and then you step back and you create it. It always must begin with the point of truth within yourself.
John Kani /
Arthur
Incorporate
James
Macbeth
Miller
Othello
Shakespeare
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Yes, we have the judiciary, the Constitution, we're fighting racism on a daily basis, but these are all state efforts and are not the efforts of the individual. The individual has to commit to change, the individual has to look at the past and take accountability of the past; for the wound to heal we have to dress it together.
John Kani /
Accountability
Commit
Constitution
Fighting
Heal
Individual
Judiciary
Past
Racism
Together
Basis
State
Daily
Daily Basis
Efforts
Look
Wound
Yes
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We are sort of not at the level of entertainment that the Western world is. Everything we see on the play in the screen, we read, we take serious. We take that it speaks to me. And so wonderful to see how the Johannesburg, South African audiences will say: What does it say to me? What does it make me feel? Why am I celebrating it?
John Kani /
Johannesburg
Western World
World Me Will
Celebrating
South African
Speaks
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We never deal with propaganda. We never deal with politics. We never deal with newspaper headlines. We deal with the harsh realities of our lives. We will only comment when there is more bread to eat, more space in which to move, time in which to open your mouth and sing. As long as these things have not happened, we do not talk about politics.
John Kani /
Space
Bread
Comment
Harsh
Headlines
Our Lives
Propaganda
Open
Deal
Mouth
Newspaper
Realities
Sing
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John Kani Quotes - Page 2

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