Hello and Goodbye

by Athol Fugard. A tightly wrought full-length play about the brother and sister Johnny and Hester, the “second-hand Smits of Valley Road, Port Elizabeth”, and their relationship with their mother and father.

Performance history in South Africa

First produced in 1965 by Phoenix Players, directed by Barney Simon and featuring Molly Seftel and Fugard, officially opening on 26 October in the Library Theatre, Johannesburg after a few multi-racial performances elsewhere.

Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye at the Blue Fox in Rosebank, Johannesburg with plans to take it to the black townships, 1974.

However what must rank as the definitive production, featuring Yvonne Bryceland and Bill Flynn, was directed by Athol Fugard for the The Space (Cape Town) in 1974. This production later went on to tour Dublin, was invited as part of the opening season at London’s Riverside Studios and both of the actors were used in the SABC-TV and BBC TV productions of the play (197* and 197*).

PACOFS, 1976, directed by Johan Bernard with Marthinus Basson and Estelle de Waal. In 197* The Company also did a version of the play in the Blue Fox, directed by Barney Simon?

A student production in the H.B. Thom Theatre in 1995 was directed by Mark Graham and Angerie van Wyk.

Directed by Ilse van Hemert for A Million Freds Productions, late 1990s, with Jan Ellis as Johnnie and Janine Ulfane as Hester. Design by Marthinus Basson, lighting by Kobus Rossouw.

Many productions followed, including Hello & Goodbye with Nazli George as Hester and Ralph Lawson directing in April 2000; Hello & Goodbye, Langley Kirkwood, Kunstekaap, 2001. Pedro Kruger & Ralph Lawson (Regisseurs).

Often done abroad, notably in *** by the Royal Shakespeare Company, directed by Janice Honeyman with Antony Sher and Estelle Kohler.

Text published in 196*, and many times subsequently.

Translations and adaptations

Hallo en Koebaai, the translation by Jacobsz, performed in collaboration with the Alternatiewe Toneelgeselskap on the National Arts Festival Fringe (1985), presented by KRUIK Toneel at the Nico Arena in September 1985 and at the Baxter Studio (opening 20 May 1986), directed by Esther van Ryswyk starring Shaleen Surtee-Richards and Royston Stoffels.

Another Afrikaans translation by Driaan Engelbrecht: Dagsê en Wederom. Full-length. Cast: mixed. Nas BIB. Published in/by Balkema; in Boesman en Lena and other plays by Oxford University Press; in South African Theatre by Haum.

Sources

Astbury 1979.

Barrow, Brian & Williams-Short, Yvonne (eds.). 1988. Theatre Alive! The Baxter Story 1977-1987.

National Arts Festival programme, 1985.

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