By Reza de Wet

A farm lies in ruin. And with mother and father now gone, a brother and sister face eviction by an officious lawyer. Abandoned, they endlessly enact the rituals of punishment once visited upon them by their parents. Widely regarded as a milestone in South African theatre, the multi-award winning play tells the story of their final ‘dance macabre’. Despite overwhelming critical acclaim, it was also fiercely condemned by Afrikaans conservatives as being a subversive portrayal of repression.

The White Bear Theatre, Kennington Park Road, London. Tue 1st May to Sun 20th May 2007. Tue to Sat 7.30pm, Sun 6pm. Tickets £10/£8.

“James Perkin’s atmospheric design transports White Bear’s small stage to a ruined farmhouse in South Africa, where light bulbs hangs from wires and planks criss-cross the flats, boarding up the devastation within. Kaisa Hammarlund delivers an astonishing, powerhouse performance as the woman-child Stussie, who flits magnetically between girlish flightiness and the god-fearing, stern disposition of her mother, whose presence seems to possess her sporadically. It is a captivating portrait of a character riddled with neuroses. She is reminiscent of a Tennessee Wiliams heroine, and indeed the evocative script could be the literary offspring of Williams and Edgar Allen Poe in its humid, claustrophobic and decaying grandeur.
All in all, a tense and thrilling piece of theatre.”

Evelyn Curlett, The Stage