The Drowning Eye – The Play

The Drowning Eye is a little-known play by Frantz Fanon, written in 1949. Part love poem, part surrealist narrative, and part philosophical treatise, Fanon’s play reads as a testimony to the power and possibilities of love as an act of resistance. This contemporary reimagining of the text explores the edge between love, shadow and violence. Tamara Guhrs and Stacy Hardy join forces with KwaSha, the Market Theatre Lab and Windybrow Arts Centre, to present this work at a time when Fanon’s writing has new relevance for a generation of young South Africans questioning the limits and possibilities of revolution today. The Drowning Eye is performed in the midst of the exhibition, Revolutionary Love, which seeks to explore the role of historical loves within revolutionary movements. Both works are made possible by funding from the French Institute South Africa (IFAS) and Mazarz, with additional research supported by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture & Society, University of Chicago.   Guest: Tamara Guhrs