Some Mothers' Sons

Some Mothers' Sons is a play by Mike van Graan.

A full-length play extended version of van Graan's playlet, Thabo for Thabo. This came about as the result of Thabo for Thabo being staged as a reading in Rotterdam in 1999, after which the actors requested that the playlet be developed into a full-length piece. Six years later, Van Graan did this and entered it into the NLDTF/PANSA Festival of Reading of New Writing in 2005.

The original text

A play about two individuals who both experience violence in intensely personal manners; one, as a detainee during apartheid and the other, as a person living in a city now wracked by violent crime.

The play was selected as a finalist in the 2005 NLDTF/PANSA Festival of Reading of New Writing for Drama. The play premiered at the ABSA KKNK in April 2006.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

2006: Performed at the ABSA KKNK in April. Directed by Jay Pather, with Dumisani Mbebe as Vusi Mataboge and Gideon van Eeden as Braam Visser. Thereafter, Wiseman Sithole and Gideon van Eeden.

2006: Performed at the Baxter Theatre 10 April-6 May 2006; Oval House Theatre, London 10-27 May 2006; De Appel Theatre, The Hague 6-11 June 2006; National Arts Festival, Grahamstown 1-7 July 2006; Kalfiefees, Hermanus 11-13 August 2006; Klein Libertas Theatre, Stellenbosch 17-19 August 2006; Hilton Arts Festival 14-15 Sept 2006; Apollo Theatre Festival 22-24 Sept 2006; Aardklop Arts Festival 26-30 Sept 2006; Market Theatre 3-29 October 2006.

2007: Musho Festival (Durban) 14-15 January 2007.