A chicken was slaughtered on the stage of one of Cape Town’s most popular theatres, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday.
Disgusted arts lovers stormed out of the Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch after the chicken had its throat cut and was left to bleed to death.
The newspaper said the chicken was killed on Saturday, minutes before the end of the closing night of the run of iMumbo Jumbo.
Actors, including real-life sangomas, had been using a chicken as part of their performance since the start of the show’s three-week run.
On closing night they decided to ritualistically kill it. However, because cast members had become fond of the chicken, a stunt double was bought at a roadside stall in Philippi.
Several members of the audience, including local actor Graham Weir, said they were sickened by ”the on-stage murder”.
”This happened about five minutes from the end, at which point I and some 20-odd other audience members stood up and left the theatre,” Weir said.
Weir said he had confronted Baxter Theatre director Brett Bailey after the show in the foyer and had asked what purpose had been served by the slaughter of the chicken.
”He said those were real sangomas on stage, performing rituals that are performed in real life. He didn’t understand what the fuss was about.
Another audience member, Sonja Killian, said she had been left traumatised by the incident.
The newspaper said the sangoma who cut the chicken’s throat was unrepentant. ”We work with spirits and we had to sacrifice something for the ancestors,” Ntombe Tongo said.
iMumbo Jumbo follows the true-life quest of Chief Nicholas Tilana Gcaleka — diviner, priest, liquor salesman and guru — who travelled to Britain in 1996 to retrieve the skull of his ancestral king and thereby restore peace and dignity to South Africa.
The play examines the world of ritual, spirits, prophets, priestesses, chiefs and queens, while illuminating the tensions between African and Western beliefs and values. — Sapa