A landmark international collaboration between theatre artists from Kosovo and South Africa comes to Johannesburg

At the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, 9–19 April, with opening night on 10 April.

Following its world premiere in Kosovo last year, this landmark coproduction comes to Johannesburg, the first production from the country to play an extended run in South Africa.

Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept reflects on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the blood feud reconciliation process in Kosovo. Critics have hailed the show as “deeply complex” (Theatre Times) and “heartfelt” (SEEstage), while acclaimed playwright Mark Ravenhill described it as “moving and thought-provoking.”

Written and directed by two of Kosovo’s leading theatremakers, Jeton Neziraj and Blerta Neziraj, working in tandem with Greg Homann, artistic director of the Market Theatre, the show features a cast of Kosovar, Albanian, North Macedonian and South African actors. 

Now it comes to South Africa for 10 performances only at The Market Theatre. After its South African run, the production will embark on a major European tour to countries including Norway, Italy, Germany and Portugal, with more dates planned, including performances at the Théâtre de la Ville Paris in May 2027 and a run at New York’s internationally renowned LaMaMA Experimental Theatre Club also in 2027.

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About the show

In 1990, with war on the horizon, a group of former political prisoners, students and intellectuals from Kosovo initiated a historical movement for blood feud reconciliation. Up until this point, hundreds of families in Kosovo were in a state of enmity and blood feud. The cycle of vendetta had taken the form of a vicious circle, with feuds passed down from one generation to the next and the number of murders in some feuds sometimes amounting to thirty.

What started as a small reconciliation movement, quickly transformed into a public national forum, with mothers, fathers and family members taking to the stage in front of an audience and forgiving the blood of their beloved to the family of their murderer. Many public sessions took place and hundreds of families reconciled during this process. 1,275 blood feuds and conflicts were resolved in total. Over half a million people attended the last public session of reconciliation.

On the other side of the globe, in 1995 the South African government initiated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, aiming to heal the country and reconcile the people, by creating a space for them to confront the truth of crimes committed against them during apartheid, Victims and perpetrators were put in front of each other, in a ‘trial’ where terrible truths from these periods of violence, oppression and persecution were revealed.

Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept pays tribute to the unbreakable human spirit in the face of horror, and the courageous pursuit of forgiveness against bloodshed. Through archival material and newly collected testimonies, artists from South Africa and Europe reflect on the lessons offered by Kosovo’s 1990 Blood Feuds Reconciliation Campaign and South Africa’s 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Campaign. Through humour and piercing performance, the exceptional cast of performers takes you into the heart of a commission, mirroring the pain victims felt when confronting those who have committed horrors, while exposing how systems of violence break generations. The result is a moving, irreverent and aesthetically rich journey through the complexity of national acts of healing.

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Artistic team

Author: Jeton Neziraj (Kosovo) | Dramaturg: Greg Homann (South Africa)

Directed by: Blerta Neziraj (Kosovo)

Stage designer: Theun Mosk | Ruimtetijd (The Netherlands) | Composer: Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu (South Africa) | Choreographer: Jochen Roller (Germany)|Costume designer: Blagoj Micevski (North Macedonia)

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Cast

Gontse Ntshegang (South Africa), Amernis Nokshiqi (North Macedonia) Ilire Vinca (Kosovo), Kensiwe Tshabalala (South Africa), Arben Bajraktaraj (Kosovo/France), Les Made (South Africa), Bongile Gorata Lecoge-Zulu (South Africa)

Co-produced by: 

Qendra Multimedia (Prishtina, Kosovo), The Market Theatre (Johannesburg, South Africa), São Luiz Teatro Municipal (Lisboa, Portugal), Teatro Della Pergola (Firenze, Italy), Theater Dortmund (Dortmund, Germany), Black Box Teater (Oslo, Norway), Mittelfest (Cividale del Friuli – Italy), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris, France).

In cooperation with: 

Ruimtetijd (The Netherlands), La MaMa (New York, USA), Gjilan City Theatre (Gjilan, Kosovo), Sens Interdits Festival (Lyon, France).

For more information about the show and tickets, please visit the Market Theatre webpage.