King Kong: Legend of a Boxer
- Submitting institution
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University of South Wales / Prifysgol De Cymru
: B - B – Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies : B - B – Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
- Output identifier
- 4821189
- Type
- I - Performance
- Venue(s)
- Fugard Theatre, Cape Town, South Africa; Mandela Theatre, Johannesburg
- Open access status
- -
- Month of first performance
- -
- Year of first performance
- 2017
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- ‘King Kong: Legend of a Boxer’, a musical written by Harry Bloom and revised by William Nicholson, was directed by Jonathan Munby for The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town in 2017, and at The Mandela Theatre in Johannesburg in 2017. The challenge of staging ‘King Kong: Legend of a Boxer’ resided in the fact that the original script and production, though in many ways outstanding and of undoubted historic significance, nevertheless had dramaturgical limitations. Under Munby’s direction and guidance, the narrative was re-shaped, the characters were presented with more psychological depth, references that were offensive were removed, new songs were written, and the piece was re-contextualised in order to connect contemporary audiences with the historical moment in which the musical was first conceived. Munby led workshops with actors in South Africa in order to generate new material through improvisations and acting exercises. He also returned to the original version of the piece to expand on early ideas from the first incarnation of the show that were later cut. Munby interviewed original band member Hugh Masekela and original lyric writer Pat Williams in order to understand the aims of the project in 1959. The significance of this was to provide contemporary audiences with a nuanced version of the iconic musical that did not compromise the original.
The submitted pdf file includes a link to a video of a performance of the play at The Fugard Theatre, photographs documenting the work, and a description of the research process.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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