Clinton Marius (20 August 1966 – 26 February 2020) was a South African writer and performer. He was born in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; ) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa after Durban. It was named in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. The town was named in Zulu after King ...

, and made his first professional appearance singing the lead role in Menotti's opera, '' Amahl and the Night Visitors'' at age twelve. His poetry has been published internationally, while he was also known for penning several plays and collections of short stories, as well as the fictional biography of a guru, ''Sunshine – The Booklet of the Biography''.

Theatrical career

In 2002, he directed Jonathan Cumming's ''The Gladiator'' at the National Arts Festival, and co-ordinated ''A Slice of Madness'', a season of theatre in

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

in which he appeared in

David Campton David Campton (2 May 1924 – 9 September 2006) was a prolific British dramatist who wrote plays for the stage, radio, and cinema for thirty-five years. Biography Campton was born in Leicester, in 1924. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School ...

's ''Mutatis Mutandis''. In January 2003 he appeared at the KwaSuka Theatre in ''The Divine Child''. In April 2003 he founded the annual Fools Awards in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

in recognition of arts practitioners' contributions. His performance alongside Greig Coetzee in Kobus Moolman's ''Soldier Boy'', winner of the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

worldwide radio drama competition, was broadcast internationally. Clinton Marius' highly successful one-man show, ''Uncut – The Penis Monologues'', directed by Garth Anderson, premiered in Durban in September 2003 before starting its national tour. He also performed in his stage drama, ''Vergissmeinnicht'' (''Farm of Secrets'') at the 2003 National Arts Festival in

Grahamstown Makhanda, formerly known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 75,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Gqeberha and southwest of East London. It is the largest town in the Makana Local Mun ...

. This was followed by the

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

send-up, ''Guru'', and the one-man comedy ''Thank You Very Much'', a satire about

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

and celebrities.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marius, Clinton South African poets South African dramatists and playwrights South African male short story writers 20th-century South African male singers South African male stage actors South African male child actors People from Pietermaritzburg 1966 births 2020 deaths English-language singers from South Africa