NAF: SKRAPNEL

Powerful poetic Afrikaans theatre. (Review by Thomie Holtzhausen)

Willem Anker’s Skrapnel on the National Arts Festival’s main programme positions Afrikaans as a highly intellectual and participant in this year’s festival. Whether it will draw Afrikaans theatre goers into the theatre is another question.

It tells the story of Chris Botha, a young South African who was killed in a suicide bomb attack in London in 2005. Through a series of cleverly-directed scenes, Skrapnel deals with terrorism, suicide bomb attacks, love, relationships and a man searching for his own identity. Against the backdrop of a young man who left South Africa to find his inner self, the audience is forced to consider their own journeys. The essence of self-discovery in a somewhat “fragmented” sequence of events is superbly performed by Marcel van Heerden, Andrew Thompson and Jeanine Groenewald.

Winner of Anglo Gold Ashanti Smeltkroes and the Aardvark Award, the play showcases the capabilities of the writer and the director and certainly is highly commendable. - Thomie Holtzhausen