Reza de Wet

THIS ENTRY STILL NEEDS TO BE EDITED

(1952-2012) Actress, award-winning playwright, novelist and drama lecturer. Born in Senekal in the Free State, an only child. Her father was a judge in Bloemfontein, where she matriculated at the Hoër Meisieskool Oranje. Her mother involved in amateur operetta and drama. Her classmates thought her a bit enigmatic, but she excelled in drama, performing in the school plays. The school now has an annual drama festival named after her. She studied English and Drama at the University of the Orange Free State (1971-1973), then completed a BA Honours degree there, before going to do a Performers Diploma at the University of Cape Town and later an an MA in English literature through the University of South Africa. During the later study period she also worked for PACT and its experimental Arena Company. It was here she met Lindsay Reardon, whom she later married. In 1982 they moved to Grahamstown, where her daughter Nina was born. They both worked in the drama department at Rhodes University and Reza would later become a professor there, retiring in 2007. Died of leukemia at home in Grahamstown in 2012. Though she had written some earlier work in English (notably Heathcliff and the Dancing Bear, in which she explores the life of Emily Brontë's brooding hero before he arrived at Wuthering Heights - later produced as De Wet's final directorial production at Rhodes University as Heathcliff Goes Home), she premiéred sensationally as a playwright in Afrikaans with Diepe Grond (Lit: “Deep Ground”) at the Kampustoneel-festival in Pretoria (1982). (S: Market Theatre, 1985, P:1987, Tr: Dearth.) Produced a steady stream of neo-Gothic (“Afrikaner Gothic”) works: Vrystaat Trilogie (“Free State Trilogy” – P: 1991) contained: Diepe Grond (S 198*), Op Dees Aarde (lit. “On this earth”, S: 1986) and Nag Generaal (“Goodnight General” – S: 1988?*). Then two English plays: In a Different Light (S: 1988) and Worm in the Bud (S: 1988, S: 1990, P: 1995). Returned to Afrikaans with the trilogy Trits: Mis, Mirakel en Drif (P: 1993), contains: Mis (a complex title which can refer to any or all of “Fog”, “Dung”, “to miss a target” or “the Catholic Mass” – S: 1993 - Winner Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Indigenous Script 1993), Mirakel (lit. “miracle” – S: 1994) and Drif (Lit. both “a ford in a river” or “passion” – S: 1994 Winner Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Indigenous Script 1994). After a novel (**** 1994), returned to a performance text for the First Physical Theatre Company, (S: 199*), then the first of her Chekhov works, the superb Drie Susters Twee (“Three Sisters Two” - S: 1997, P: 1996. Winner Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Indigenous Script 1997) and Yelena (S: 1998). These were followed by ** (199*), ** (20**), ** (200*) and Breathing In (2004). On the later productions, worked closely with director designer Marthinus Basson. The first playwright and only the second author to win the prestigious Hertzog Prize twice in a row for the same medium (1993, 1996). DE WET, Reza. Her Diepe Grond starring Dawid Minnaar, Susan Coetzer, Gys de Villiers and Doris Simula under Lucille Gillwald’s direction was staged at Upstairs at the Market in 1986. Her A Worm in the Bud was staged in 1990.

Other plays are Concealment (2004) The Brothers, Broers (200*) On the lake wat in Grahamstown Festival, 2001

Verleiding, a solo piece with Antoinette Kellermann

Die Blou Uur (The Blue Hour) Aardklop, 2008 Die See (The Sea), was performed at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in April 2011. her last play *** was performed post-humously *** in 2012.

As director De Wet did, among other plays, Arthur Miller's The Crucible(, 1989) and August Strindberg's Ghost Sonata for the Rhodes University Drama Department. Her final directing job at Rhodes was her own play Heathcliff Goes Home (2007).

In addition to her plays, De Wet wrote a novel in Afrikaans (Stil Mathilda, 1995).

Sources

Go to South African Theatre/Bibliography

See also

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