The Parents

The Parents is an English play by Pieter Fourie (1940-2021)

The original text

A play about a homosexual couple - a surgeon and an actor - who dream about the son they could never have. He is of course to be perfect, physically beautiful and a fine cultured person who is interested in the arts and theatre. Then they find a motorcyclist after an accident who is the physical counterpart of their dream. They take him into their home, but reality is nothing like the dream.

Written in 1966, it was Fourie's first attempt at a serious drama after Tjaka, and was written in English because of the gay theme, since he felt Afrikaans theatregoers were not ready to accept such a play yet. Indeed Niel le Roux called it the first South African drama written about gay issues, or at the very least the first such play in Afrikaans.

The text was never published.

Translations and adaptations

In 1984 Fourie reworked it in Afrikaans as Beeld van 'n Seun ("Image of a boy") for performance at the ATKV Kampustoneel in 1985. This too has never been published.

Performance history in South Africa

1980: Performed by the People's Space, directed by Henry Goodman, with Robert del Kyrke, Gabrielle Lomberg, Paul Malherbe and Sean Taylor. Design by Bee Berman and Anton Johnson, costumes by Birrie le Roux, lighting by Nic Fine and stage management by Ilse Dahms.

Sources

Nico Luwes 2010. Pieter Fourie (1940-) se bydrae as Afrikaanse dramaturg en kunsbestuurder: 1965-2010. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Bloemfontein: University of the Free State, pp.147, [1]

Photocopy of the programme for the English production at The People's Space (), held in the PARC research collection at the Africa Open Institute, Stellenbosch.

Mooi Maria theatre programme, 1981.

Go to ESAT Bibliography