When the Saints Go Marching In

When the Saints Go Marching In is a story by Hennie Aucamp (1934-2014).

The original text

First published in 1967 by John Malherbe Edms Bpk in a collection called Spitsuur ("peak hour"), a collection of 12 stories by Aucamp. (The title of the collection sometimes wrongly given as Spits Uur).

When the Saints Go Marching In is an Afrikaans South African one-act play. Suster Gloria, a coloured gospel singer who performs to audiences around the world, grows disillusioned with her calling, and finds the light again late one night in a bar in a Brussels back street.

Translations and adaptations

Successively adapted for stage by Annalise van der Rijst (1970) and Juanita Swanepoel (2011).

Performance history in South Africa

1970: Performed as a dramatic reading in the Libertas Theatre, Stellenbosch as part of a programme called Hennie Aucamp: Kortverhale en Eenakters ("Hennie Aucamp: Short Stories and One-act Plays"). Directed by Marie van Heerden and performed by Annelize van der Ryst.

2011: Staged at the US Woordfees, Stellenbosch, in the Klein Libertas Teater on 6 and 13 March, as part of the Sanlam Dramafees. Directed by Juanita Swanepoel, with Virginia Davids and Pieter van Zyl. The production combined drama, spoken word, music and physical movement, the movement drawn from the mime corporel tradition of Etienne Decroux, which Pieter van Zyl had studied in Europe and the United States.