The Island

Robben Island is a Maximum Security Prison in South Africa that opened in 1961 and closed in 2011. It's prominent because Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was imprisoned there for 18 of the 27 years he served behind bars before the fall of Apartheid. Court Theatre brings to the stage John and Winston, two political prisoners who share a prison cell on an unnamed Island, spending their days toiling in the prison's quarry. Their crime belonged to a banned organization and burning his passbook in front of the police. Burning his passbook was considered a serious crime, as the government used passbooks to segregate and control the South African people. 

To break their will, John and Winston were forced into grueling hard labor, ran in shackles, and randomly did nonsensical tasks to torture them psychologically. During their imprisonment, they rehearsed a two-person abridged version of Antigone by Sophocles, which they will perform in the prison concert. John will play Creon, and Winston begrudgingly will play Antigone. However, when John is ordered into the office by Hodoshe, the nickname of a hated prison guard, he returns with news that his appeal was successful and his ten-year sentence has been commuted to three years: he will be free in three months. Winston is happy for him at first; however, after they discuss John leaving prison and returning home, Winston begins to unravel — doubting why he ever made a stand against the regime.

It opens with a lengthy sequence where John and Winston walk and then run after a rock platform and shovel sand to exhaust the prisoners' bodies and morale. The Island was a painful reminder of the abuse blacks endured during Apartheid and how the power of theater can liberate and provoke change.

Written in protest against South Africa's racist apartheid laws, white South African dramatist Athol Fugard had begun a theater company, the Serpent Players, to encourage theatrical collaboration between black and white artists. Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona wrote The Island during Apartheid; however, to avoid draconian censorship, they changed the play's name to Die Hodoshe Span.

Ronald L. Conner (Winston) and Kai A. Ealy (John) provided a masterful performance throughout, and their portrayal of Creon and Antigone was so riveting it was like seeing two plays. Conner, who is without question becoming one of Chicago's must-see male actors, is brilliant as Winston, and his South African accent, was exceptional. Kai A. Ealy was also impressive as John. The thorough intensively between the two men honestly had you believing you were in prison with him, battling for freedom. 

I've been in ministry work at several correctional centers and a few maximum security prisons throughout Illinois, where I counseled inmates, so I understand the mental and psychological torture inmates endure. But our prisons are nothing like other countries or Robben Island, where prisoners were made to work like slaves. 

Winston Churchill's famous line, "Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it," and The Island is a simple remember that we should never allow the racial segregation of history to repeat itself — and we should learn from our historical mistakes. And let's not forget, throughout all of the harm, hatred, torturing, and men killed at this maximum security prison, one man rose from the ashes of Apartheid to become The first South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela! From prison to President!

Let's Play Theatrical Review Recommends The Island at Court Theatre. 

Court Theatre

The Island

By Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona

Directed by Associate Artistic Director Gabrielle Randle-Bent

November 11 - December 4, 2022