The Seven Deadly Sins is a concept found throughout the history of Christianity, often used as title and/or theme in works of art, including drama, film, media and performance.

Not to be confused with the Catholic doctrine of "Mortal Sin"[1]

The Seven Deadly Sins as concept

The so-called "seven deadly sins" (also known as "capital vices", or "cardinal sins") are not explicitly mentioned in the Bible, but refer to a group of vices often found in Christian teaching and mentioned in (or used as a theme in ) in literary and dramatic works. The sins mentioned usually refer to the sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Greed, Sloth, Gluttony and Lust.

For more on the origin and nature of the list of Deadly Sins, including their occurrence in the various art forms, see the entry on "Seven Deadly Sins" in Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins

The Seven Deadly Sins in theatre, film, media and performance

As a title The Seven Deadly Sins can refer to the a vast number of books and works of art, including a number of dramatic works, films and other performance forms. There are of course also a number of other works using the seven deadly sins as theme, but with another title.

Below find entries on works bearing the title The Seven Deadly Sins (or translations thereof) that have possibly been performed in South Africa.

The Seven Deadly Sins attributed to Richard Tarlton (c. 1585)

The original text

A two-part play in the tradition of the medieval morality play, written c. 1585 and attributed to Richard Tarlton, whose company, Queen Elizabeth's Men, first performed it.

Performances in South Africa

Die Sieben Todsünden ("The Seven Deadly Sins") by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht (1933).

Known in English as The Seven Deadly Sins and in French as Les sept péchés capitaux.

The original text

First performed in German on 7 June 1933 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, with Lotte Lenya in the lead.

Translations and adaptations

South African performances

1976: Performed in English as The Seven Deadly Sins in Johannesburg, with singer Judy Page as "Anna 1" and the visiting ballerina Galina Samsova as "Anna 2".

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Deadly_Sins_(ballet_chant%C3%A9)

George Boshoff, Eversdal. 2022. Letter: 'Die Sewe Doodsondes' kom al lank, Die Burger, 13 August 2022: p.18

The Seven Deadly Sins- Seven One-act Plays by Thornton Wilder

The original text

A series of short works depicting the complexity and consequences of human frailty, comprising the plays The Drunken Sisters (Gluttony), Bernice (Pride), The Wreck on the 5:25 (Sloth), A Ringing of Doorbells (Envy), In Shakespeare and the Bible (Wrath), Someone From Assisi (Lust) and Cement Hands (Avarice).

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) [2] worked on this idea during the late ’50s and early ’60s, a period when he was much taken the artistic promise of theater-in-the-round. The first performed was Someone from Assisi (Lust) at the Circle in the Square Theatre in New York during in 1961-1962.

For more on the plays see https://www.thorntonwilder.com, the official website of the Thornton Wilder family.

Performances in South Africa

For performances put on in South Africa, see the entries on the individual plays.

Die Sewe Doodsondes ("The Seven Deadly Sins") by Hennie Aucamp and Barry Strydom (1995)

The original text

An original cabaret/"morality" by Hennie Aucamp and Barry Strydom, the play was inspired by, and based on Aucamp's ideas, as developed for the introduction to Sewe Sondes, Nee Meer: Verhale en Essays oor Dood- en Ander Stories ("Seven sins, no more: Stories and essays on death and other stories"), compiled by Hennie Aucamp and published by Human and Rousseau in 1995. The book contains sixteen stories and essays by well-known well-known writers, mainly on death and the concept of sin.

Hennie Aucamp's original hand written manuscript of the play (accessible on the University of Stellenbosch's SUNDigital Collections website[3]) has the title as "Die Sewe Doodsondes: 'n Moraliteit" ("The Seven Deadly Sins: a Morality"). It was performed as a cabaret by the University of Stellenbosch drama department under this title in 1995 (credited to Aucamp only) and then published as Van Hoogmoed tot Traagheid of Die Sewe Doodsondes ("From Pride to Sloth, or The Seven Deadly Sins") by Human & Rousseau in 1996, with illustrations by Conrad Botes.

Translations and adaptations

A playscript listed in English as The Seven Deadly Sins is held by the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown as [Typescript (photocopy)], CAMPBELL Location: [Collection: DALRO]: 2001. 41. 269 held by NELM.

Performance history in South Africa

1995: Presented by the University of Stellenbosch Drama Department in the H.B. Thom Theatre 18-22 April 1995. Mark Graham directed. Members of the cast were Leana Dreyer, Paul du Toit, Nicole Holm, Aletia Badenhorst, Amelda Brand, Nico Dreyer, Jaco Bouwer, Willemien Brümmer, Paul van Wyk. Soundtrack by Ewald Cress, costume design Elaine Aucamp, production manager Stiana Potgieter, stage manager Nicky Rabie.

Sources

Hennie Aucamp's original hand written manuscripts (accessible on the University of Stellenbosch's SUNDigital Collections website at https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/3911 and https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/3918]).

Die Sewe Doodsondes programme, University of Stellenbosch, 1995.

Copy of the text, annotated with comments and translations of Afrikaans words. Probably a copy of a copy used by an English speaking technician for the 1995 Stellenbosch production. Found in the Stellenbosch Drama Department archives in 2022.

A CD titled Sewe Doodsondes accredited to Hennie Aucamp and Ewald Cress. Probebaly the soundtrack for the cabaret Die Sewe Doodsondes by Hennie Aucamp.

Other dramatic works with this title

In more recent times a number of shorter plays called The Seven Deadly Sins, depicting the seven sins, have also been written by inter alia Ron Vandenburg[4], Simon Denver[5],