Styles is important in this South African play both because of his personal identity and as the photographer who records the image of Sizwe Bansi/ Robert Zwelinzima. The theme of identity transformation is parallel, with some distinctions, between Styles and Bansi, who are both black African men.

Styles turns from worker to owner. In his former job on an automobile assembly for the Ford Motor Company, Styles found the work unfulfilling and the hours were long. After considering the possibilities, he decided that he should pursue his passion for photography. He made his move while the plant was closed for Christmas, establishing his own studio in an empty room near a funeral parlor. When the play opens, the audience meet this independent business owner. Through his efforts, Port Elizabeth’s black residents can record important moments in their lives; he thus helps individuals and the community to building a history.

Bansi, in contrast, turns into a completely different person. Only recently arrived in town, Bansi’s random encounter turns into a fateful decision when he decides to assume the identity of a dead man in order to use his work-seeker’s permit. To completely become Zwelinzima, he needs to put his own photograph on the card. It is in Styles’ studio that this photograph is taken, although he does not share the reason with the photographer.

The dual theme of Sizwe Bansi Is Dead is identity under South African apartheid and universal identity. The inception for the play was a photographic of a South African man of tribal descent seen in a photography studio window during the years of apartheid. The man was represented in clothes and with possessions symbolizing power that were unattainable for black South Africans under the rule of apartheid. Therefore, the photography created a reality that could only be dreamed of and never attained. During Apartheid, non-Caucasian South Africans were forced to a "Book of Life," an Identity book that restricted travel, living areas and employment. To be caught without a valid Book of Life, which were often spot-checked for no known cause, was to face imprisonment and possibly exportation. Sizwe Bansi needs a photo, and gives a false name to get it, to send to his wife so she can procure him a new identity book because he is without one and therefore stranded in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

Mr Styles is important because he provides the avenue for Bansi's story to emerge. He also provides the picture that has the potential power to give Sizwe Bansi a valid identity and the power to act like a free person (at least within certain restraints) instead of fearing imprisonment. Styles is the symbol of life as the provider of the necessary documentation needed for a Book of Life identity card. The US also has identity cards like driver's licenses and social security cards but no citizen is imprisoned without one, although it is getting ever harder to get by in life without acceptable identification.

[For more information, see the African American Performing Arts Community Theater description and background of Sizwe Bansi is Dead.]