Skrapnel

Skrapnel ("Shrapnel" in English) is an Afrikaans play by Willem Anker.

The original text

A play about two young South Africans in London: a girls working as a carer for old people and a man working as a security guard at a shopping centre. They meet in a youth hostel and become involved. On 7 Jul7 2005 the man dies in a suicide bombing in the London Underground. The play begins shortly after the attack, and their story is told in flashbacks, that include insights into the religiuous fundamentalism of the yough Moslem suicide bomber, and the unfocussed and uncertain lives of the two young South Africans regarding identity, beliefand culture.

First performed in 2009, the text published August 5, 2011 by Protea Boekhuis.

Translations and adaptations

Performance history in South Africa

2009: Presented at Aardklop 2009

2010: Presented at the National Arts Festival 2010, directed by Jaco Bouwer and featuring Marcel van Heerden, Andrew Thompson and Jenine Groenewald.

Sources

Weekend Post 20 June 2010.

The stage manager Naomi Slabber's prompt copy for what appears to have neem a Stellenbosch student production, compiled by found in the archives of the Stellenbosch Drama Department in 2022.

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