Kanna, hy kô Hystoe

(“Kanna’s Coming Home”) by Adam Small. A heavy-hearted, but superb Afrikaans verse play about the issues of voluntary exile and the trials and tribulations of a “coloured” family in District Six in Cape Town. Possibly a reworking of an earlier play, Gone/Going Canada*?. An extract of the Afrikaans text, without a title and with "Kanna" named still "Hannie", was published in Contrast (March 1965). The full text under the new name first published by Tafelberg Uitgewers in 1965. Initially called an unperformable text by critics such as W.E.G. Louw and Abel Coetzee, it proved to be a moving theatrical work in production.

When the play opened at the Nico Malan Theatre on 22 November 1974, directed by Pieter Fourie, the playwright, specially invited, refused to attend as no other coloured people could attend.

Performance history in South Africa

First performed by the students of DRAMSOC 1971??**, under Small's own direction, then professionally in the Little Theatre?* housed in the Old Presidency by PACOFS (Bloemfontein) from 3-12 August 1971, directed by Johan Botha and featuring Louise Mollett-Prinsloo as "Makiet", Jan Prinsloo as Kanna, Trudie Taljaard as "Kietie" and Henk Hugo.

The first Cape performance followed by the newly founded Cape Flats Players in 1974, Universiteitsteater Stellenbosch directed by Ria Olivier in 1975, by PACT in 1976, a second PACOFS production directed by Mavis Taylor in 1976 with Marthinus Basson, Alison Marquard, Babs Laker; by the Eersterus Performing Arts Council (in association with PACT) in 1981.

It was often done by the Cape Flats Players over the years, inter alia **, in 1999 at Aardklop and KKNK to celebrate their first 25 years (they now called the Cape Flats-Spelers in Afrikaans), directed by Peter Braaf, with Ivan Sylvester, Lloyd Davids, Janine Louw, Marc Morilly, Bertram Adams, Paul Cookson, Sandra Braaf and Brenda Sylvester.

It was also done by the Baxter Theatre, directed by Royston Stoffels (2003-4), design by Patrick Curtis and featuring Ivan Abrahams, Peter Butler, **. Reprinted often and produced numerous times since, by Universities, professionals and amateurs.

Translations and adaptations=

Translated into English as Kanna – He is Coming Home by Carol Lasker and Adam Small. Performed in the USA and published by Garland in 1990. Published by Tafelberg.

Its first production in English (Kanna Is Coming Home) was a Baxter Theatre production directed by Peter Krummeck in January 1985. The cast included several members of the Cape Flats Players.

Sources

Grütter, Wilhelm, CAPAB 25 Years, 1987. Unpublished research. p 334.

PACOFS Drama 25 Years, 1963-1988.

Barrow, Brian & Williams-Short, Yvonne (eds.). 1988. Theatre Alive! The Baxter Story 1977-1987, p 105, 131

Go to ESAT Bibliography

Return to

Return to K in Plays I Original SA Plays

Return to South_African_Theatre/Plays

Return to The ESAT Entries

Return to Main Page