Afrikaanse Toneelspelers

AFRIKAANSE TONEELSPELERS, Die. ("The Afrikaans Players") A professional theatre company founded by Hendrik Hanekom and Mathilde Hanekom in 1925. Other members were Ernst Killian, Jan van der Walt, Simon Malherbe, Petrus F.P. Erasmus, Marie van Niekerk, Martie du Plessis and Myrtle Kinnear. They went on a tour of the Transvaal, OFS, Boland and on to Cape Town from October of that year with Oom Gawerjal se Dogters en die Stemkoors ("Uncle Gawerjal's Daughters and the Election Fever") and Liefde en Geldsug ("Love and Avarice"), hurriedly devised and dictated to a colleague to type by Hendrik Hanekom when C.J. Langenhoven refused the company the rights to Die Wêreld die Draai ("The World Turns"). (The plays were performed in repertory, often consecutively on the same night.) In 1926 Paul de Groot joined the company as performer and "artistic leader", while Hanekom remained the "Direkteur" ("manager") - and the company ceased to exist, being renamed the Paul de Groot Geselskap ("Company") and consisting of a mix of the old and a number of new performers.

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