THOSE who saw this play in Grahamstown say it is a gripping production that everyone who is serious about theatre should make a special effort to see.
It filled up venues at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival last year and has now been chosen as one of the shows that will open the new season of the Market Theatre.
The horrors of a lost generation will be brought into stark relief when Somewhere on the Border, written by Anthony Akerman and directed by André Odendaal, is presented at the Market Theatre from January 10 to February 12.
The play was written by Akerman while he was in exile. It was intercepted in the post and banned as a publication by apartheid censors because the language was considered "offensive" and the portrayal of the South African armed forces "prejudicial to the safety of the state".
"In the 1980s Somewhere on the Border took a stand against young white conscripts being sent to the border," Akerman says. "Today, by retelling the story, the play has shown it can help former conscripts to process what they went through and arrive at some form of healing or closure."
Glen Biderman-Pam plays Dave Levitt, Charles Bouguenon is Kotze, Dylan Horley reprises the role of Doug Cambell, Luan Jacobs is Paul Marais, André Lötter plays Hennie Badenhorst, Kaz McFadden is Trevor Mowbray and Ndino Ndilula plays The Black Actor.
These actors give life to a story that makes the old South Africa seem both foreign and extremely familiar.
After almost two decades of silence, the border war has forced its way back into public discourse and this production is part of that dialogue.
Somewhere on the Border is currently a set work for first-year English students at the University of Cape Town.
"It has a new preface by me and an afterword by Gary Baines of Rhodes University, whose field of academic research focuses on the legacies of the apartheid wars," Akerman said.
Border war revisited
THOSE who saw this play in Grahamstown say it is a gripping production that everyone who is serious about theatre should make a special effort to see.
It filled up venues at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival last year and has now been chosen as one of the shows that will open the new season of the Market Theatre.
The horrors of a lost generation will be brought into stark relief when Somewhere on the Border, written by Anthony Akerman and directed by André Odendaal, is presented at the Market Theatre from January 10 to February 12.
The play was written by Akerman while he was in exile. It was intercepted in the post and banned as a publication by apartheid censors because the language was considered "offensive" and the portrayal of the South African armed forces "prejudicial to the safety of the state".
"In the 1980s Somewhere on the Border took a stand against young white conscripts being sent to the border," Akerman says. "Today, by retelling the story, the play has shown it can help former conscripts to process what they went through and arrive at some form of healing or closure."
Glen Biderman-Pam plays Dave Levitt, Charles Bouguenon is Kotze, Dylan Horley reprises the role of Doug Cambell, Luan Jacobs is Paul Marais, André Lötter plays Hennie Badenhorst, Kaz McFadden is Trevor Mowbray and Ndino Ndilula plays The Black Actor.
These actors give life to a story that makes the old South Africa seem both foreign and extremely familiar.
After almost two decades of silence, the border war has forced its way back into public discourse and this production is part of that dialogue.
Somewhere on the Border is currently a set work for first-year English students at the University of Cape Town.
"It has a new preface by me and an afterword by Gary Baines of Rhodes University, whose field of academic research focuses on the legacies of the apartheid wars," Akerman said.
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