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in the former snake pit of the zoo, hence the name) in Port Elizabeth in 1965 and helped to create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception.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.
A proper adaption of the Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 Tarzan novel Tarzan of the Apes. When John and his pregnant wife Alice Clayton head out on sea for an expedition they get caught in the middle of a mutiny. Captain Michael (leader of the Mutiny) prevents his men from killing John and Alice like they killed the others. He leaves them on the African coast line promising to send their people to find them. John and Alice build a treehouse as shelter and Alice eventually gives birth to a baby boy. After an attack by a Gorilla Alice is sick and eventually dies. Later the Mangani Ape tribe attacks and kills John, and the ape Kala adopts the baby John Clayton II and names him Tarzan. Tarzan grows up in the wild with the Mangani tribe, lead by Kerchak. The only humans Tarzan ever has contact with is the African tribes in primitive 1800s Africa. Among these tribes is Mbonga's tribe who ritually hunt and kill the Mangani in their transition to becoming a man. Until a ship arrives at the coastline. The passengers include Jane and her father Archimedes Porter, William Cecil Clayton and Paul D'Arnot.
