By Rasvanth Chunylall
Happy 80th Birthday to playwright Ronnie Govender. A previous ACT Lifetime Achievement Award in Theatre recipient. pic.twitter.com/K0g6lOfSN5 View photo ·
— Arts & Culture Trust (@actorgza) 16 May, 2014
Renowned author, director and playwright, Ronnie Govender, celebrated his 80th birthday last month. Govender is best known for his critically acclaimed novel, At the Edge and Other Cato Manor Stories, which explores the struggles of Cato Manor residents in the 1940s before their lives are torn apart by the Group Areas Act.
Recently, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Technology in Arts and Design (along with the likes of Lauretta Ngcobo) by the Durban University of Technology as part of their efforts to recognise “leaders who have done exceptional work during the Apartheid regime” and honour their “contributions to South Africa’s art field”.
Govender’s work has inspired many young artists. Amongst these is multi award-winning actress Jailoshini Naidoo. In a feature in Sutra Magazine, she was quoted as having been provided a theatrical ‘rite of passage’ in the stage adaptation of his novel, 1949, which holds the record of being the longest running play at the Playhouse Theatre. In addition to being sold out to audiences at the Playhouse Theatre in Durban, the sister play, At the Edge, was well-received by local audiences in Grahamstown and internationally at theatres in Edinburgh, Toronto, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Glasgow. A short season run of the hit production, which began in Durban last year November, ended last month at The Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City.
