Sizwe Bansi is Dead was written in collaboration with two African actors, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, both of whom appeared in the original production. It made its debut on October 8, 1972, in Cape Town, South Africa. The play made its British debut a year or so later and won The London Theatre Critics award for the best play of 1974. The play can be traced to Fugard’s experiences as a law clerk at the Native Commissioner’s Court in Johannesburg. At that time it was required that every black and colored citizen over the age of sixteen carried an identity book that restricted employment and travel within in the country. In court, Fugard saw the repercussions of this law: blacks were sent to jail at an alarming rate. Although these restrictions are specifically South African, critics have noted that the play’s greater theme of identity is universal. Critics and scholars have also observed that Sizwe Bansi Is Dead contains elements of absurdism, especially its sparse setting and surreal subject matter.

Sizwe Bansi Is Dead opens in the photography studio of a man named Styles (Gainey) and his chance meeting with the arrival of a customer, Sizwe Bansi (Barnes). Sizwe asks to have his picture taken, but when Styles asks him for his deposit and name, Sizwe hesitates. Sizwe says his name is Robert Zwelinzima. Styles ask Sizwe what he will do with the photo, and Sizwe tells him he will send it to his wife. When the picture is taken, the moment is frozen into what the photograph will look like. It comes to life and Sizwe dictates the letter to his wife that will accompany the photo that tells how and why Sizwe Bansi is stranded without a work permit in Port Elizabeth. Sizwe encounters Buntu (Harrell), the friend who helps him to understand the importance of possessing a passbook and work permit in South Africa. Athol Fugard has maintained that the genesis of Sizwe Bansi Is Dead lies in an unforgettable photograph he saw hanging in a studio window. It was of a South African black man wearing his best suit and an angelic smile. He carried a pipe, a walking stick, and a newspaper. Styles is selling Bansi dreams of more than what is currently available to him under apartheid. Styles's photograph is made up of several lies about Bansi, though the man's face can never hide the truth of his life. Something about this photography spoke deeply to Fugard, and his collaborators on the play, actors Winston Ntshona and John Kani. They speculated on the man's life as they wrote the play. Thus, Sizwe Bansi is Dead is built on a picture, a concrete illusion of reality.

The initial audiences of Sizwe Bansi is Dead were the black audiences who saw the production at the Space in Cape Town, South Africa. Although the play was popular, many audience members left during the opening monologue when they discovered the subject matter, they feared the police would raid the theater. The play confronts and explores South Africa’s political themes with greater depth and penetration, particularly offering a theatrical experience that impacts its spectators. Sizwe Bansi is Dead has received enthusiastic receptions in Lagos, London, Accra, Ibadan, Toronto, New York etc.