Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre present A Human Being Died That Night, a play by Nicholas Wright. A Human Being Died That Night is a Fugard Theatre production, which opens at the Fugard Studio Theatre in Cape Town on 20 February and then transfers to the Market Theatre in Johannesburg before a formal London season back at the Hampstead Theatre in May 2014. The play was first produced by Eric Abraham at The Hampstead Downstairs, London in May 2013 and ran for a sold out 5 week season. A Human Being Died That Night will be directed by Jonathan Munby (UK). Greg Karvellas (SA) is the Associate Director.
1997. Pretoria Central Prison, South Africa. Psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (Noma Dumezweni) prepares to sit opposite the apartheid regime’s most notorious assassin, Eugene de Kock (Matthew Marsh) nicknamed “Prime Evil”– the head of the apartheid regime’s death squads. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Madizikela questions de Kock who is serving a 212 year sentence for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud. She is determined to try to understand what motivated de Kock’s actions. One is reminded of European writer and philosopher Hannah Arendt’s endeavour to understand the nature of evil when she wrote about the Nazi holocaust architect Adolf Eichman’s trial in Israel in 1962.
How did de Kock become one of the most reviled figures in apartheid and indeed world history? Is Pumla able to overcome her disgust and hate for this monster and find the human within? And will de Kock be prepared to open up and tell an educated black woman the truth? Or is he seeing her as someone who can help his campaign for a presidential pardon?
A Human Being Died That Night is based on Professor Pumla Gobodo-Madizikela ‘s Alan Paton award-winning best-selling book of the same name and explores, through her extraordinary prison interviews with de Kock, how a fundamentally moral person could become a mass murderer. She questions his continued imprisonment. South African born Nicholas Wright is one of Britain’s foremost playwrights who has regularly written for the National Theatre. His plays include Vincent in Brixton (Laurence Olivier Award for Best new Play 2003), The Reporter (2007), The Last Duchess (The Hampstead Theatre 2011) and Travelling Light (2012).
Noma Dumezweni is a highly regarded Swazi born British stage, film and tv actress who won the Laurence Olivier Award for her supporting role in Lorraine Hansberry’s Raisin in the Sun (Young Vic and Lyric Theatre). Matthew Marsh is one of Britain’s foremost actors with credits that range from The Iron Lady with Meryl Streep to the hit BBC TV series Spooks. Director Jonathan Munby‘s last production at the Fugard Theatre was Caryl Churchill’s A Number with father and son British theatre stars Tim and Sam West. Additional theatre credits include Heinrich von Kleist’s The Prince of Homberg (Donmar Warehouse), Pedro de la Barca’s Life Is A Dream (Donmar Warehouse) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company (at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre). The creative team on A Human Being Died That Night is Paul Wills (UK, SA) on design; lighting by Daniel Galloway (SA) and Tim Mitchell (UK), and sound design by James Webb (SA) and Christopher Shutt (UK).
Following the South African and World Premiere season at the Fugard Studio Theatre in Cape Town, which runs from 20 February - 15 March 2014, The Fugard Theatre production of A Human Being Died That Night transfers to the Barney Simon Theatre at The Market Theatre for a limited season from 19 March – 6 April 2014. Tickets from R120 to R160 can be purchased through Computicket and the Fugard Theatre box office on 021 461 4554. Friends of the Fugard continue to receive excellent discounts when booking through the box office. The production is not suitable for children younger than 14. ends For the Editors: Based on Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela’s interviews with Eugene de Kock, A Human Being Died That Night explores how a fundamentally moral person can become a mass murderer. Here’s a potted history of Eugene de Kock and his role in the apartheid regime.
29 January 1949 Eugene Alexander de Kock was born to Lawrence de Kock, a magistrate and personal friend of apartheid Prime Minister John Vorster. De Kock, a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, indoctrinated his sons in Afrikaner nationalist ideology and taught them “strict Afrikaans” as they grew up. De Kock had a long-standing ambition to become a South African police officer. After finishing school, he attempted to join the South African Defence Force, but was disqualified because of a stutter. De Kock then joined his brother as a member of the South African Police, (SAP) where he tried to join the organisation’s elite Special Task Force. Again he was rejected, this time because of poor eyesight. During the latter stages of the Rhodesian Bush War, de Kock was deployed to Rhodesia to defend its white population against the Communist supported ZAP and ZANU guerrilla armies of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.
1979 De Kock co-founded Koevoet, an SAP counter-insurgency unit tasked with combating SWAPO guerrillas in South-West Africa during the Namibian War of Independence. Koevoet became notorious for its high enemy kill rate and for its alleged but well chronicled atrocities against local Namibian peoples.
1983 The SAP transferred de Kock to C10, a counter-insurgency unit headquartered at a farm called Vlakplaas, located 20 kilometres west of Pretoria. De Kock, who had established a reputation for bravery and commitment during his tours in Rhodesia and Namibia, was promoted as the unit’s commanding officer two years later. Under de Kock’s leadership, C10 - later known as C1 - became a death squad which hunted down and killed opponents of the National Party and the apartheid system.
October 1996 upon being convicted two years after a democratic South Africa came into being, Eugene de Kock was sentenced to 212 years in prison for crimes against humanity. The eighty-nine charges included six counts of murder, as well as conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud. De Kock is serving his sentence in the C Max section of the Pretoria Central Prison.
July 1998 De Kock first became prominent during his testimony in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), during which he made multiple revelations relating to ANC deaths. At the end of his testimony he apologised, saying: “I wish to apologise to Cosatu and the SACC on behalf of myself and my men for the hurt, disruption, paranoia and other psychological effects of the blasts.” He accepted full responsibility for “everyone at my level and downwards, but not upwards”. At the trial he famously called on South Africans to turn away from hatred and revenge and to avoid “finger-pointing”, and added that “in time things will sort themselves out”.
2012 De Kock made several pleas for forgiveness to the relatives of his victims. In January, he wrote a letter to the family of Bheki Mlangeni, apologizing for killing the ANC attorney in a 1991 bomb attack; Mlangeni’s mother, Catherine, doubted de Kock’s sentiments due to his prior lack of remorse. In February, de Kock had a meeting in prison with Marcia Khoza, confessing that he had personally executed her mother, Portia Shabangu, in an ambush in 1989. Khoza publicly forgave de Kock.
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