South Africa, 2019. Twenty-five years since the first post-apartheid democratic elections, two men from contrasting walks of life are thrust together to reflect on a quarter-century of change. Jack Morris is a celebrated classical actor who has just been given both a career-defining role and a life-changing diagnosis. Besides his age, Jack has seemingly little in common with his at-home nurse Lunga Kunene, but the two men soon discover their shared passion for Shakespeare, which ignites this ‘rich, raw and shattering head-to-head’ (The Times).

Written by South African actor, activist and playwright John Kani, this refreshingly funny and vital new play premiered in the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon in 2019, before transferring to the Ambassadors Theatre in London. A co-production with the Fugard Theatre, it was directed by Janice Honeyman with moving performances from Antony Sher and John Kani.

Missing is the story of Robert Khalipa, an ANC cadre living in exile, who is very senior in the organisation but is left out of the negotiations and almost forgotten in Sweden. Robert has a wealthy Swedish wife, Anna, and they have a daughter who is a practising doctor in a hospital in Stockholm. There is also Robert's protege Peter Tshabalala, junior in the organisation, yet he gets the call to return to South African to join the democratic government. What follows is a story of conspiracies, lies, back stabbing and disappointments. Robert and his family are faced with the challenges of a South Africa that has changed radically from the one he remembers from more than thirty years ago. The government, in his opinion, does not seem to uphold the principles enshrined in the Freedom Charter. There is also conflict within his own family. Robert wants to stay in South Africa, while his wife and daughter want to go back to Sweden. Their love is tested to breaking point and difficult decisions have to be made by every individual. As with Kani's very successful and often-performed previous play, Nothing but the Truth, the ambiguities of freedom and of personal commitment are explored in this play.

"Nothing But the Truth" tells the story of two brothers, of sibling rivalry, of exile, of memory and reconciliation, of the perplexities of freedom.
"The past will always be a powerful presence in the present. We must never forget, but this does not mean that we must cling to the past, and wrap it around us, and live for it. We only look back in the past in order to have a better understanding of our present. This is one of the greatest lessons of "Nothing But the Truth.""--Zakes Mda
John Kani joined the Serpent Players in Port Elizabeth in 1965, and helped create many plays that went unpublished but were performed to a resounding reception. These were followed by the more famous "Sizwe Bansi is Dead" and "The Island," co-written with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona, in the early 1970s. "Nothing But the Truth" marks his debut as sole playwright.