When Swallows Cry opens at the Baxter

After its successful premiere at the Market Theatre a year earlier, an independent production of When Swallows Cry is staged at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town.

Featuring a Cape Town cast comprising Mbulelo Grootboom, Marty Kintu and Kai Luke Brummer, and directed by Lesedi Job who also directed the Market Theatre production a year earlier, When Swallows Cry opened at the Baxter Theatre.

The Norwegian theatre company, Ibsen International, with its long history of engagement with China, commissioned eight playwrights from around the world to produce new works as part of its New Text-New Stage II project, and to work with the theme of migration which is of increasing political significance globally. The playwrights (three from Europe, two Chinese, one American, a Russian and Mike van Graan from South Africa) met over a period of nine months for a week at a time in three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou) during 2015/16, developing their scripts with dramaturges from Norway, Italy and Slovenia, and with Chinese actors, in this unique international project. In the final phase, directors from Hong Kong, Germany and Norway worked with Chinese actors in staged readings of excerpts of the scripts, as part of their further development.

Cape Town reviewers from City Press, Die Burger and Cape Argus all gave the play four stars.

“When Swallows Cry is a timely theatre work that fearlessly tackles a global question made worse by Donald Trump and his ilk”.

Wayne Muller, Die Burger

“A masterful evocation of migrating, crossing borders and seeking refuge…it’s sit on the edge of your seat fare…there is a thriller element that propels each story along.”

Robyn Cohen, Arts Writer

“When Swallows Cry is, despite its distressing theme, a completely engrossing and…entertaining production.”

Karen Rutter