UNDER THE SHADE OF A TREE, I SAT AND WEPT
JETON NEZIRAJ / BLERTA NEZIRAJ @TheaVilleParis
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ENTRE KOSOVO ET AFRIQUE DU SUD, UN THÉÂTRE D’ENQUÊTE EXPLORE LE FRAGILE CHEMIN DU PARDON.
https://t.co/YTZcfBoPyV
“Judit Seeks” – a performance from Belgium that explores the complex relationship between humans and nature.
📷 Location: National Theatre of Kosovo
📷 Thursday, May 14
📷 20:00 – 22:00
📷 Reserve your ticket at: [email protected] or +383 44 430 693
Last week, the Nelson Mandela Foundation partnered with the @MarketTheatre for the screening of Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept, as part of the theatre’s 50 year milestone.
The production brings into conversation South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Kosovo’s Movement for the Reconciliation of Blood Feuds, using testimony, archive, and performance to explore the complexities of forgiveness, justice, and national healing.
“In South Africa today, we are still confronted with inequality, division, and unresolved pain. Productions like these create space for reflection, but also for discomfort, and that discomfort is important. It is where growth begins. Art has the power to hold up a mirror to society, not to shame us, but to ask: who are we becoming, and who do we still need to be?” said Mbongiseni Buthelezi, Chief Executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
“Institutions like the Market Theatre play a critical role in bringing complex histories to life. They translate policy, memory, and lived experience into something people can feel and connect with. Because the truth is, art reaches where policy cannot,” he added.
We are proud to collaborate with institutions that continue to hold space for dialogue, memory, and imagination, and we encourage continued support for the Market Theatre as it marks this important milestone.
#MakeGoodTrouble #MarketTheatre50 #NelsonMandelaFoundation #TheArts #SocialJustice
[ON AIR]
‘Under the Shade of Tree, I Sat and Wept’ is a collaboration between two countries - South Africa and Kosovo - and we get to juxtapose the two countries’ histories in the play - Actress Kensiwe Tshabalala on the play by The Market Theatre in partnership with Qendra Multimedia in Kosovo #TheFullCircle with @BridgetMasinga
#ConversationsThatMoveUs
Kosovo-South Africa theater co-production "UNDER THE SHADE OF A TREE I SAT AND WEPT" @ Heddadagene in Oslo, Norway / 12 & 13 of June 2026
https://t.co/gFAzq6Eaks
@kennethandresen@NitaLuci@MarketTheatre
In that room, strangers became connected through stories, silence, and shared questions
From Kosovo to South Africa, this journey of truth and forgiveness has closed on our stage
Thank you for showing up and holding space with us 🤝🫂❤️
#MarketTheatre50
What happens when Kosovo’s blood-feud reconciliation meets SA’s TRC?
Playwright Jeton Neziraj explores it in Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept - a bold, uncomfortable look at truth & forgiveness.
At The Market Theatre (running until 19 April).
https://t.co/QWdR8aql4r
There is profound symbolism in this collaboration.
The Market Theatre has long stood as a site of anti-apartheid cultural resistance — a place where art challenged power, protected memory and helped shape civic consciousness. The Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation exists to preserve and activate a legacy grounded in moral clarity, justice with compassion, accountability without vengeance, radical forgiveness and courageous dialogue.
For one special evening honouring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, these two legacies meet within the South African run of Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept — a production that places South Africa and Kosovo in conversation through the difficult, necessary language of reconciliation.
This is why collaboration matters.
Because reconciliation does not live in policy alone.
It must also live in culture, in public encounter, in moral imagination, and in the brave spaces where nations continue learning how to speak across pain.
#TutuLegacy #MarketTheatre #CulturalResistance #MoralLeadership #Reconciliation #JusticeAndHealing #ArtsAndCulture
A play that reflects on forgiveness @MarketTheatre https://t.co/itanqmMpvr
From 9 –19 April 2026, The Market Theatre presents Under the Shade of a Tree I Sat and Wept in a limited 10-show run.