The Dam

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There are two South African plays by this name.

The Dam by Guy Butler

This was the winning play of the Van Riebeeck Playwriting Competition,, set up to find commissioned works for the 1952 Tercentenary Van Riebeeck Festival.

A play about an English South African farmer's relationships with his family and neighbours, and his vision of, yet doubts about, building a dam in the river. The dam and the implications of its building become a metaphor for Butler’s liberal view of the politics of the times.

First published by A.A. Balkema in 1953.


South African productions

1952: Produced by NTO, directed by Marda Vanne, with Rolf Lefebvre, Marcia Colville, June Range, Gerrit Wessels, Noëlle Ahrenson, Alan Chadwick, Michal Grobbelaar, Johan Malherbe, Frank Wise. Decor by Geoffrey Long.

Sources

Theatre programme, 1952.

Helikon, 1(5):87. 1952.

Go to ESAT Bibliography

The Dam by Archibald J.A. Wilson

A one-act play. Published by DALRO in 1970.


South African productions

1941: Performed in Cape Town by the Repertory Theatre Society (later known as the Cape Town Repertory Theatre Society) on 11 March 1941.

Sources

Go to ESAT Bibliography

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