Title of Production:  Ek, Anna van Wyk

Language:  Afrikaans

Genre:  Drama

Directed by:  Nico Luwes

Written by:  Pieter Fourie

Featuring:  Final year drama students

Venue:  Wynand Mouton Theatre

Dates & times:

28 May at 19:30

29 May at 19:30

30 May at 19:30

Prices:  R 40.00 for adults / R 30.00 for students or scholars / R 25.00 for pensioners or for groups of 10 or more

Bookings:   Computicket (0861 915 8000)

Press Release

The play, "Ek, Anna van Wyk", by Hertzog prize-winner in 2003, Pieter Fourie, is performed by a multicultural third year cast of the UFS Drama Department students under the direction of Prof Nico Luwes in the Wynand Mouton Theatre from 28 to 30 May 2014.

“Anna” is an Afrikaans play about the disintegration of a marriage and a woman caught up in the patriarchal and Apartheid systems. In this haunting exploration of the Afrikaner psyche, the older members of the Terre’Blanche family are stuck in poisonous political dogma and traditions. In contrast, Anna and her husband, represent the young Afrikaner who shed the Apartheid dogma and desperately try to better the lives of their farm workers. The play deals with the rebellious Anna who challenges their misuse of power and the corruption of Christianity for own gain. Senior, the family patriarch, opposes his daughter- in-law, Anna, after it becomes obvious that she is an epileptic. Not fit as ‘breeding stock’ for the Terre’Blanche family she is replaced by a younger woman. In this heart-rending play she must sacrifice that and those who are dearest to her – her husband, her child, her status and herself. Fresh from a mental institution and rehabilitation from alcohol addiction, Anna struggles through the pains of rediscovering her lost identity and believes in what is right and what is wrong. In the final scene Anna apparently murders Senior, but the Voice in the auditorium assures the audience that he died of a heart attack earlier. But is this true? Depicting Anna as Senior’s victim and as a victim of the values embedded in the society he represents, raises the audience’s sympathy for her and diminishes the patriarch’s stature.

The plight of the farm workers plays an important part in the play. Taking into account the recent uprising of farm workers in the De Doorns district, it becomes clear that very little has changed since 1986 when the play was first performed and the country was on the brink of a civil war. Fourie has written a play that can be seen as a dramatic historical document of the 1980’s, but it’s relevance for the present political climate in the country cannot be denied.

Definitely a play that must be seen.