Donkerland (“Dark Land”) can refer to an Afrikaans play by Deon Opperman (1962-) and/or the TV mini-series[1] based on the play.

Donkerland: The play

The original text

Commissioned for the KKNK and first produced there by PACT, this is an epic drama of five hours duration, Written in two parts, and consisting of 10 short plays of 20-45 minutes each, with 11 actors playing 68 characters and telling the story of seven generations of an Afrikaner family living on the farm Donkerland in Natal, a saga spanning a century and a half from 1838 to 1996.

It tells the story of the Afrikaner from the Great Trek to the New South Africa (post 1994), as it was intertwined with the stories of the other cultures and peoples inhabiting the land. Opperman presented the saga as if holding up a mirror for the Afrikaners to see what brought them to this current reality, to question their place in it and their future. Ultimately Opperman’s mirror reflected the socio-political pessimism experienced by many Afrikaners immediately after the 1994 elections; all that will remain of the Afrikaner in this dark country, the play suggests, will be as fleeting as a snail’s trail across a rock on the farm Donkerland, a mere footnote in the annals of history. “This is my attempt at singing the song of a nation. A nation which is a mixture of nobility and monstrosity, which slaughtered, but also was slaughtered” (Deon Opperman, 1995, translated from Afrikaans). [Van Heerden (2008)][2]. p. 132

The text was published by Tafelberg Uitgewers (1996).

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

1996: Produced by PACT at the KKNK festival in April, directed by the author with a cast that included André Odendaal, Eric Nobbs, Seipati Montsho, Nomhle Nkonyeni, Shadrack Keorapetse, Petro-Nelise Trichardt, Samson Khumalo, David Clatworthy and others.

1996: Performed at the Grahamstown Festival and in mainstream theatres in various cities.

Donkerland: The mini-series

Based on the 1996 play by Deon Opperman, this 13 episode mini-series was produced for the pay-TV channel kykNet by Bottom Line Entertainment with Soné Combrinck, Lucia Meyer-Marais and Deon Opperman as producers, and aired in 2013-2014.

Saartjie Botha and Deon Opperman are credited as writers of the series, and the first 6 episodes were directed by Jozua Malherbe, with assistant directors Quentin Krog, Christiaan Tredoux and Scharl van der Merwe (trainee). The crew also included Janine Neethling (music), Adam Joshua Bentel (series cinematography), Johan Oelsen (series film editing), Flo Ballack (art direction) and Sune Jansen

The cast included Gustav Gerdener (as "Pieter de Witt"), Lelia Etsebeth (as "Magriet de Witt") and Palesa Nhlengethwa (as "Eerste") as the linking lead characters, with vast range of supporting characters over the 13 episodes.