Valley Song

Valley Song is a drama by Athol Fugard (1932-).

The original text

The play was partly inspired by an incident that occurred while the BBC was filming a documentary of Athol Fugard and his life in Nieu Bethesda in the Eastern Cape. A young girl, seeing the camera crew leaving the village, stopped them and offered to sing a song, which she duly did on camera, out there on the dusty street..

Set early in the New South Africa, Fugard's resulting play was, on one level, autobiographical - about an elderly man finding himself more comfortable in the familiar and secure, if confined reality of the past - while on another level, it dealt with the challenges and opportunities facing a new generation in an entirely new environment. It tells of an old "Coloured" man in the rural Eastern Cape has lovingly brought up his teenage granddaughter in the values, the fears and the limited expectations of the old South Africa, but she has aspirations to be more. Life has given her one thing, a lovely singing voice, and she wants to sing her own song. More, she wants to become a famous singing star in Johannesburg, the City of Gold. Hers is a dream of freedom. The metaphor is apparent; the old must find the wisdom to let go of the past and the new must find the courage to take the first steps into the future. In an interview at the time of the première the playwright commented, also in the narrower context of the arts, “I believe that we are going to get it (the new South Africa) right. I believe there is an exciting time ahead for us in the arts as our new reality emerges and as our artists focus on the new reality. Maybe we lack focus at the moment and maybe that’s because our reality isn’t defined”. [1]. p 153.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans as Lied van die Vallei, by Idil Sheard in 2003.

Performance history in South Africa

1995: Premièred at the Market Theatre in August, directed by the playwright, with Esmeralda Bihl as Veronica and Fugard as Buks/Author

1995: Staged at the Hilton Drama Festival in September.

1995: The production opened in the State Theatre, again directed by Athol Fugard, with Esmeralda Bihl, but with Louis van Niekerk taking over the role of Buks/Author from Fugard - who had gone to the USA for the American production.

1995: The American première, directed by Fugard, took place at the McCarter Theater in New Jersey in October 1995, with Lisa Gay Hamilton as Veronica and Fugard himself as Buks/Author.

1996: Staged at the KKNK, directed by Fugard, with Esmeralda Bihl as Veronica and Fugard as Buks/Author. The role of Buks was later taken over by Marius Weyers.

2003: Staged in the Studio at the Baxter Theatre by Mannie Manim Productions, directed by Barbara Rubin, with Quanita Adams (Veronica) and Ivan Abrahams (Buks).

2003: The Afrikaans translation by Idil Sheard, was staged as Lied van die Vallei, in the Dutch Reformed mission church, which was converted into a theatre, in the village of Nieu-Bethesda where the action was originally placed. The production was directed by Idil Sheard, with local residents Sonja Boezak (Veronica) and Arno du Toit (Buks).

Translations and adaptations

Translated into Afrikaans as Lied van die Vallei by Idil Sheard and published by Maskew Miller Longman Pty.Ltd.South Africa (2006).

In 2004 an opera version premièred at the Spier Arts Festival, with a libretto by Guy Willoughby and a score by Thomas Rajna.

Sources

KKNK theatre programme, 1996.

Eastern Province Herald, 25 September 2003.

Petru & Carel Trichardt theatre programme collection.

Johann van Heerden 2008. Theatre in a new democracy. Some major trends in South African theatre from 1994 to 2003. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch.

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