Die Nag van Legio

("The Night of Legion"), the first play written by P.G. du Plessis. An Afrikaans play about the inmates of an insane asylum, who become pawns in a battle between good and evil fought out by one of their number and a stranger who arrives that night.

Performance history in South Africa

First performed in the Breytenbach Theatre, Pretoria, by PACT in 1969, directed by Truida Louw and featuring i.a. Carel Trichardt, Louis van Niekerk and Schalk Jacobsz. First published Nasionale Boekhandel, 1969. A critically acclaimed play which was instrumental (in conjunction with Siener in die Suburbs) in winning the author the coveted Hertzog Prize for Drama in 1972.

PACOFS, 1972, directed by William Egan, starring Errol Ross, Gerrit Geertsema, Neels Coetzee.

Adaptations

Du Plessis himself reworked the play for women, for PACOFS in 1990. In this version the play is about a group of women in an asylum who, on the eve of their move to a new institution, get a new roommate, Maluna. Maluna plays an evil game to settle an old score, choosing Hanna as her victim.

Presented by PACOFS 17 May - 2 June 1990, using the original decor design for PACT's production in 1970 in the Bloemfontein Civic Centre. Isadora Verwey portrays Maluna (Dogoman in the original play), Marion Holm as Hanna, Marie Pentz, Marga van Rooy, Anna Richter-Visser, Marlene van Heerden, Christo Compion (the doctor) and Maria de Koker.

A production of this version was done by the students of the Stellenbosch University Drama Departement, May 1991 and October 2002, H.B. Thom Theatre, in both cases directed by Marthinus Basson.

Sources

Die Volksblad, 10 May 1990.

Cape Times 20 May 1991.

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