Vrygrond

Vrygrond is a play by Charles J. Fourie

The original text

The play tells the story of a black Afrikaans squatter family who settled in a cemetery outside a Karoo village. The influence of the violent 1980s is highlighted while they wait anxiously for promises of a new government in the 1990s to be fulfilled.

The play was written with the support of the Stigting vir die Skeppende Kunste (Foundation for the Creative Arts) and won the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1992.

First performed in 1993, the text published in Vrygrond e.a. Dramas by Tafelberg in 1995.

Performance history in South Africa

1993: First performed by the Agterdeur Geselskap at the ATKV Kampustoneel Festival in Pretoria on 16 April, directed by Charles J. Fourie

1993: Presented by KRUIK Toneel, directed and designed by Charles J. Fourie, starring Natie Rula, Chris Gxalaba, Vicky Kente, Ricky Rudolph, Tina Jaxa and Willem van der Walt at the National Arts Festival Fringe, in July.

Sources

Bound copy of the typed text of Vrygrond, containing details of the broadcast, found in the Stellenbosch Drama Department archives in 2022. Contains handwritten notes by the author/director.

National Arts Festival programme, 1993. 189.

Review by Victor Metsoamere in The Sowetan, 28 April 1993. p.19.

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