Concealment
Concealment is an English play by Reza de Wet (1852-2012).
Contents
The original text
Written as a kind of counterpoint work to De Wet's earlier work A Worm in the Bud (1990), the tragic play once again takes a critical look at attitudes to life and to "the other" (women in particular) in colonial Africa, expressed through the intertwined tales of two sisters. However, in this case the protagonist, the recently widowed May, finds life in Africa emancipating rather than stifling or terrifying, so when her sister Amy and her dominating father travel to South Africa to retrieve her they are disturbed to find her untouched by grief, unwilling to return and drawn instead to the wild, natural beauty of her moonlit garden.
The text was first published in the South African Theatre Journal in 2004 (Volume 18: pp. 299-351)
The play was thereafter included as a companion piece to A Worm in the Bud ( renamed Fever) in the collection De Wet: Two Plays by Oberon Books in (2005).
Translations and adaptations
Performance history in South Africa
2004: First produced in the Box Theatre on 20 May by Rhodes Drama Department, directed by Reza de Wet, as part of the Rhodes University's Centenary Celebrations. Set and costume design were by Roux Engelbrecht and lighting design by Clay Williams. The cast consisted of Lindsay Reardon, Dani Marais and Ashleigh May Kok.
Sources
South African Theatre Journal. 2004. (Volume 18: pp. 299-351)
Reza de Wet. 2005. De Wet: Two Plays by Oberon Books.
Gordon Dickerson. 2018. Personal correspondence with Temple Hauptfleisch.
Danie Stander. 2017. "Reza de Wet – Haar Lewe en Werke", In: Programme for KKNK Festival, 2017[1]
Go to ESAT Bibliography
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