Difference between revisions of "Nag, Generaal"
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A pacifist play set in the final years of the Anglo-Boer War and relating the story of Martha, a woman finding her own inner strength with the aid of a mystical young herbalist, while seeking to avenge herself on her dying husband, the patriarchal General, whom she holds responsible for the death by suffocation of her son, whom he had sent to the battle front. | A pacifist play set in the final years of the Anglo-Boer War and relating the story of Martha, a woman finding her own inner strength with the aid of a mystical young herbalist, while seeking to avenge herself on her dying husband, the patriarchal General, whom she holds responsible for the death by suffocation of her son, whom he had sent to the battle front. | ||
| − | Published in ''[[Vrystaat Trilogie]]'' ("Free State Trilogy") in 1991 ([[HAUM-Literêr]]). | + | Published in De Wet's collection called ''[[Vrystaat Trilogie]]'' ("Free State Trilogy") in 1991 ([[HAUM-Literêr]]), along with ''[[Diepe Grond]]'' and ''[[Op Dees Aarde]]''. |
==Translations and adaptations== | ==Translations and adaptations== | ||
Revision as of 11:26, 18 June 2018
Nag, Generaal ("Goodnight, General") is a play by Reza de Wet (1952-2012).
Contents
The original text
A pacifist play set in the final years of the Anglo-Boer War and relating the story of Martha, a woman finding her own inner strength with the aid of a mystical young herbalist, while seeking to avenge herself on her dying husband, the patriarchal General, whom she holds responsible for the death by suffocation of her son, whom he had sent to the battle front.
Published in De Wet's collection called Vrystaat Trilogie ("Free State Trilogy") in 1991 (HAUM-Literêr), along with Diepe Grond and Op Dees Aarde.
Translations and adaptations
In 2004 De Wet re-wrote the play as Breathing In, a more Gothic tale and refocusing the issues of the play on the notion that the "final breath" of a dying person could be life-giving. Using very much the same situation, she retains the General, but combines the Martha character with that of the mysterious healer, to create a kind of Mother Courage character, who, while acting as healer, simultaneously scavenges on the battlefield, to the extent of using her beautiful young daughter to seduce young soldiers and robbing them of their "dying breath" to keep her daughter alive.
Breathing In was in its turn translated back into Afrikaans as Asem ("breath") by Marthinus Basson and had its premiére at the KKNK in 2017.
Performance history in South Africa
1988: Directed by Lucille Gillwald in 1988 for the Market Theatre Company with Sandra Prinsloo (Magda), Gys de Villiers (Generaal), Dawid Minnaar (Naas), André Stolz (Lombaard) at the Rhodes Theatre, Grahamstown Festival followed by a run at Upstairs at the Market. Design by Nadya Cohen, lighting by Wesley France.
1991: Directed by Ernst Eloff for PACOFS at the André Huguenet Theatre, Bloemfontein, opening 15 August 1991. The cast members were Christo Compion (Generaal), Isadora Verwey (Magda), Pieter Brand (Naas) and Hendrik Baird (Lombaard). Design Johnny Boerstoel, lighting Dulcie Holtzhausen, musical arrangement Heidi Edeling.
Sources
National Arts Festival programme 1988. 42.
Evening Post, 4 July 1988;
Business Day 22 July 1988.
PACOFS News, 17(3), 1991.
Nag, Generaal theatre programme, 1991.
Hester Rossly van der Wal. 2005. Vrouefigure in Reza de Wet se Drama-oeuvre. Unpublished M.A. Thesis, University of South Africa[1].
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