WHEN SWALLOWS CRY Comes to The Drama Factory

Nominated for six Naledi Awards When Swallows Cry interweaves three stories set in Africa, or about African migrants and refugees. One story features a Canadian teacher - initially assumed to be an American - who is captured by a group of bandits in a West African country. He is held for ransom to generate the funds required to develop the region in which he is held. A second story features two Zimbabwean teachers who flee the economic hardships of their country in a boat heading to Fiji where they will not require visas for at least three months. However, the boat ventures into Australian waters and they are held at a detention centre for illegal immigrants, and are threatened with immediate deportation to Zimbabwe. The third story tells of a Somalian who leaves his war-torn country for South Africa, only to experience brutal xenophobic violence that obliges him to seek refuge in America. He obtains a legitimate US visa but is hounded at the port of entry; one of his tormentors is an African America official, a descendant of African slaves, but whose job it is to prevent "undesirables" entering America, and threatening their security. These stories, featuring three actors playing contrasting characters in the three different playlets, are multi-layered and raise numerous themes about contemporary mobility. The stories comment on each other, not necessarily in sequence, but as a whole.

Lesedi Job obtained her BA (Hons) degree in Dramatic Arts from the University of Witwatersrand. Her professional theatre debut was in James Ngcobo's The Lion and the Jewel (2008) and over a period of eight years she has worked with him in Touch my Blood, Colored Museum, Ketekang, Letters to Mandela, I almost remember: a tribute to Maya and most recently, A Raisin in the Sun (2016). In 2017 she performed excerpts from this play in Washington DC, alongside actors from Sweden and the USA, for World Theatre Day. In 2013 she starred in Curl up and Dye directed by Sue Pam Grant and in 2014 she performed a leading role in Lara Foot's Fisher's of Hope. The play, which travelled to Austria and Germany, earned Lesedi a Naledi Theatre Award nomination for best performance by a leading actress. In 2016 she tried her hand at directing, as assistant to director Adrian Noble during a workshop of a new musical, Sousatzka, to be staged at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto, Canada, the following year. 2017 marked Lesedi's directorial debut with the première of Mike van Graan's When Swallows Cry at the Market Theatre. Next up was directing Omphile Molusi's Itsoseng and then another Van Graan play, Helen of Troyeville, for the National Arts Festival. Lesedi is the 4th recipient of the Sophie Mgcina Emerging Voice Award and is nominated for a Naledi award as best director for When Swallows Cry

Mike van Graan was most recently a Richard von Weizsaecker Fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin. He is also an Associate Professor of Drama at the University of Cape Town, and serves as a Technical Expert for UNESCO on the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. After the country's first democratic elections in 1994, he was appointed as a Special Adviser to the first minister responsible for arts and culture where he played an influential role in shaping post-apartheid cultural policies. He was appointed as Artscape's Associate Playwright from 2011-2014 and is considered as one of South Africa's leading contemporary playwrights, having garnered numerous nominations and awards for his plays that interrogate the post-apartheid South African condition. His seminal play, Green Man Flashing, is prescribed as a setwork in IEB schools and is studied at university drama departments. He received the Standing Ovation award at South Africa's 2012 National Arts Festival for his sustained contribution to the Festival as a writer and activist, and in 2013 was appointed as the inaugural Festival Playwright where four of his plays were showcased. To date, he has written 30 plays, with the award- winning State Fracture (2017), a satirical revue, and Another One's Bread being among the most recent. Mike is the 2018 recipient of the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against apartheid, to building a post-apartheid society and to the study of the interface between peace and culture both in his home country and across the African continent.

Mbulelo Grootboom is an award-winning actor who has appeared extensively on stage, in film and on television. Local television credits include Mbulelo Grootboom Mbulelo Grootboom is an award-winning actor who has appeared extensively on stage, in film and on television. Local television credits include the 2007 mini-series Stellenbosch and the SABC1 mini-series Forced Love, a Shakespeare adaptation, in 2012. He also had a starring role in the SABC1 political thriller Ihawu le Sizwe, in 2014. Recent film credits include a role in Alex Hailey's epic series Roots, and in Ronald D Moore's Outlander. On stage he has performed in Hamlet for the Royal Shakespeare Company and in Antigone for the Baxter Theatre. When Swallows Cry is Mbulelo's fifth appearance in a Van Graan play. He won a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for his role in Van Graan's Just Business in 2012.

Marty Kintu is a Cape Town based actor originally from Uganda. He graduated with a degree in theatre and performance from the University of Cape Town and went on to star, to great acclaim, in Peter Krummeck's drama Ivirgin Boy. Since his impressive professional debut Martin has been active in international film and television productions, puppetry and theatre. In 2016 he was nominated for a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for best supporting actor in Joe Penhall's Blue/Orange. His most recent stage work has been with director Jaco Bouwer in Marat/Sade at the Baxter Theatre and with director Mdu Kweyama in the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Topdog/Underdog, at the Alexander Bar and Theatre.

Kai Luke Brümmer graduated from the University of Cape Town in 2016, with a BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance, receiving a distinction for Acting. Most notably he has performed in The Dead Wait directed by Mdu Kweyama, Black Dog/Inj'enyama directed by Clare Stopford and Gavin Krastin's Trophy. Most recently he has performed in Mbongeni Mtshali's multiple award winning play, in (s)kin, at Artscape and the National Arts Festival, Nwabisa Plaatjie's Reimagining the Native, Richard Kaplan's Selwyn and Gabriel and Standing O Immersive Experience's Immortal at the Castle of Good Hope. His film credits include Universal Picture's film Bring It On 6, National Geographic's documentary-drama series Origins: The Journey of Humankind and UFA Fiction's Deutschland.

Book securely online with a credit card for any show at The Drama Factory by visiting www.thedramafactory.co.za. The direct booking page for this particular show is www.thedramafactory.co.za/show/Swallows18

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