Age: 82
male
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Bonsile John Kani (born 1943) is a South African actor, director and playwright. He was born in New Brighton, South Africa. Kani joined The Serpent Players (a group of actors whose first performance was in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception. These were followed by the more famous Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island, co-written with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, in the early 1970s. He also received an Olivier nomination for his role in My Children My Africa! Kani's work has been widely performed around the world, including New York, where he and Winston Ntshona won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead and The Island. These two plays were presented in repertory at the Edison Theatre for a total of 52 performances. Nothing but the Truth (2002) was his debut as sole playwright and was first performed in the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. This play takes place in post-apartheid South Africa and does not concern the conflicts between whites and blacks, but the rift between blacks who stayed in South Africa to fight apartheid, and those who left only to return when the hated regime folded. It won the 2003 Fleur du Cap Awards for best actor and best new South African play. In the same year he was also awarded a special Obie award for his extraordinary contribution to theatre in the USA. Kani is executive trustee of the Market Theatre Foundation, founder and director of the Market Theatre Laboratory and chairman of the National Arts Council of SA. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Kani, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
lions rule over the animal kingdom from Pride Rock. King Mufasa and Queen Sarabi present their newborn son, Simba, to the animals by Rafiki. Mufasa shows Simba the Pride Lands. Mufasa's younger brother, Scar, covets the throne and plots to get rid of Mufasa and Simba, so he may become king. He tricks Simba and his friend Nala into exploring a forbidden elephants graveyard. Mufasa hears about the incident from Zazu, and rescues them. Mufasa forgives him and explains that the great kings of the past watch over them from the night sky, and he will one day watch over Simba. Scar informs Mufasa of Simba's perill. Mufasa saves Simba but ends up hanging perilously from the gorge's edge. Scar refuses to help him, sending him falling to his death. He then convinces Simba that the tragedy was Simba's own fault and advises him to leave the kingdom and never return, orders the hyenas to kill him, but Simba escapes. Timon and Pumbaa rescue Simba, who collapses in a desert. Simba grows up in a oasis, living a life under the motto hakuna matata. Simba rescues Timon and Pumbaa from a hungry lioness and fall in love, and she urges him to return home, telling him that the Pride Lands have become a wasteland under Scar's reign. He visit Rafiki, who tells him that Mufasa's spirit lives in Simba, visits the ghost of Mufasa. simba and his friends fight hyenas and Scar. Rafiki presents Simba and Nala's newborn, continuing the circle of life.
