Levend Dood

Levend Dood ("living dead") is a Dutch play by A den Hertzog. **

The original text

A text for four players, inspired by Tennyson’s Enoch Arden, it tells of a man who had been away from home for fifteen years and returns to find his best friend has married his wife.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans as Haar Tweede Man by Mrs Carinus-Holzhausen. (Ludwig Binge’s version of this differs quite markedly, for he has the title as Haar Twede Man, using an older Dutch spelling for “second”, and ascribes the play to Paul Géraldy not Den Hertzog – with virtually no further details provided.)

Performance history in South Africa

1928: Haar Tweede Man was produced by Paul de Groot with André Huguenet as lead for the first time. They rehearsed at the Palladium Theatre in Paarl. Due to popular taste, De Groot at first rewrote the script so that the wife would not leave, but rather chooses to remain with the second man. This led to uncertainty amongst the players and the initial ending was followed. A huge commercial success, playing over 200 times between February - November 1928.