African Gothic

'Still water, deep ground, and underneath the Devil is turning around'

Afrikaner children's rhyme Frikkie and Sussie were born into a South African Eden, an idyllic farm with loving and responsible parents, a black nanny as their second mother, and a benevolent God in Heaven to keep them all safe and sound. But that was decades ago. Now their parents are long gone, the farm a desolate ruin, and God has clearly forgotten them.

Written during the Apartheid era, Reza de Wet's astonishing play (originally 'Diepe Grond' - Deep Ground) held up a mirror to the dark heart of Afrikaner society, forcing it to take a long and uncomfortable look at itself and the myths that sustained it.