Fugard Theatre

1997, Pretoria Central Prison, South Africa. Black woman psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela prepares to sit opposite the apartheid regime’s most notorious assassin white man Eugene de Kock nick-named Prime Evil..

‘I was a veteran fighter. That’s how I saw myself. But at the end of the day, Pumla, all that I really am is a veteran of lost ideologies. Once you realise that, you lose your innocence.’

A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Gobodo-Madikizela is interviewing Eugene de Kock while he serves 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

How did he become one of the most reviled figures in apartheid history? Is she able to overcome her disgust and hate for this monster and find his humanity within? And will he even be prepared to open up and tell an educated black woman the truth?

Nicholas Wright ‘s A Human Being Died That Night is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, and explores her extraordinary interviews with Eugene de Kock, her time on the TRC, and how a fundamentally moral person could become a mass murderer.