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The Song of Jacob Zulu. - theater reviews

Commonweal, May 7, 1993 by Gerald Weales

The story that The Song of Jacob Zulu tells is about a young South African black man, the son of a minister, who wants to achieve within the system and who at first holds himself aloof from his more radical fellow students who risk arrest and police violence to protest the inadequacy of black schools under apartheld. Based loosely on actual events, the play presents Jacob, as the opening song says, as one "for whom the good news of the end of apartheld (if it really is the end) Comes too late." Arrested because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, Jacob is beaten by the police before he is released to his father, treatment that alters Jacob's sense of himself and his society. He joins the African National Congress, distributes leaflets, leaves the country to train in an ANC camp, which is bombed by South African planes while he is there, and returns to set off a bomb in a shopping center. The explosion kills or injures a number of people, black and white, adults and children; Jacob is found guilty and executed. His lawyer blames the system and Jacob testifies that the deaths were unintentional; yet, in a prayer/confession in his cell he indicates that his memory of the dead children after the bombing of the camp made him want to kill. Without condoning his action, the play makes clear that Jacob Zulu is a victim as well as a terrorist.

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For the most part the characters lack depth, are more types than individuals, and the brief scenes that recount Jacob's growing involvement with rebellion are little more than illustrative moments. These limitations would be fatal to a realistic political play, but that was never what playwright Tug Yourgrau intended to write. He wanted a musical chorus of some kind and that happily is what he got when Ladysmith Black Mambazo joined Yourgrau and director Eric Simonson to create the work at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre in 1992. The power of the piece lies with Joseph Shabalala and his group. Their performance, based on the music which miners used to entertain themselves when they were isolated, far from their home villages, consists of a cappella singing and accompanying dance movements. Their usual repertoire runs to traditional and church songs, but in Jacob Zulu they are more obviously political. They serve as narrators, describing events and commenting on them, but they also become group characters from police to Zulu ancestors in a dream sequence. The relentless sound of their feet and the commanding chant-singing infuse the production with an urgency and an inevitability that gives the skeletal dramatic outline the strength that the subject matter demands.

There is more to the production than Ladysmith Black Mombazo. There is K. Todd Freeman as Jacob. His is a remarkable performance. His voice and his expressive face (a smile that lightens his whole countenance when it comes, as it does infrequently) help him give more to the character than the lines and scenes seem to provide, but he speaks most eloquently in body language--the way he stands, droops, draws himself up, Shifts physically within scenes, gestures with hands that cannot possibly be as long as they seem to be. Otherwise the large cast of characters is played by a group of actors who perform multiple roles, sometimes as many as five. In a few cases--notably Zakes Mokae, who plays Jacob's austere but loving father, the man who betrays him, and a strange tramp-prophet who tries to persuade him to return to his family---individual actors stand out from the company, but for the most part they provide the setting for Freeman's Jacob and Ladysmith Black Mombazo.

The Song of Jacob Zulu. - theater reviews

Commonweal, May 7, 1993 by Gerald Weales

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