‘Why bother to rob a bank, when you can own a bank?’ asked Bertold Brecht. The question is reiterated in the very Brechtian Love, Crime and Johannesburg, the story of Jimmy ‘Long Legs’ Mangane, a people’s poet involved in the struggle, who is accused of robbing a bank.  He passionately asserts his innocence, claiming to work for the ‘secret secret service’.

Lewis, his old friend and comrade from the struggle, now owns a bank. How did this happen? The man of the struggle is now a man of accounts. A man of the nineties. Part of the cellphone generation. Added to the mix is an old-style gangster, two girlfriends, a Jewish father and a very unusual Chief of Police.

Described as one of the first genuine post-apartheid plays, Love, Crime and Johannesburg is a witty, light-hearted account of life in the City of Gold at the turn of the millennium. A must for all students of South African theatre. Winner of the 2000 Vita Award for best script of a new South African Play.

Introduction by Malcolm Purkey and Carol Steinburg

The Junction Avenue Theatre Company was a theatre workshop company founded in Johannesburg in the 1970s.