Racial theme reunites Kani and Prinsloo

When Sandra Prinsloo and John Kani performed in a 1985 production of Miss Julie, their interracial onstage kiss caused an audience walkout.

“It all seems unreal now but at that time it was very real,” she says. “I was quite shocked by the display of vehemence and hatred that was the reaction to a kiss across the ‘colour bar’ but I never doubted the fact that we were right in doing Miss Julie as it should be done in that time.”

Although she has worked on stage and in television and film, Prinsloo has always considered theatre her first love. She likes the immediacy and the interaction with the audience.

“I think the idea of creating a magical yet unreal world wherein people could see themselves reflected drew me in when I first started off, rather unwillingly, as an actress,” she says. “When I was 20, I started working for [the Performing Arts Council of the Transvaal] and after my second production I fell deeply in love with theatre and decided that there was nothing else I wanted to do.”

She recalls being “a complete mess of jangly nerves” the first time she performed and has no idea how she got through it.

“There have been many funny and strange things that have happened on stage,” she says. “Once I walked up the inside of my full period dress going up a staircase until I was on my knees and had a hell of a time untangling myself and keeping a straight face at the same time.”

Kani has also had many memorable stage experiences. During the March 2014 premiere of his play Missing, a power cut forced the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town to continue the show with emergency lights. He describes it as a wonderful night.

“It reminded me of the 1960s and 1970s when I performed in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, where I grew up and started my career,” he says. “In those days there was one floodlight in the auditorium or hall and one on the stage so the audience was visible throughout.

“I could see the eyes of each and every audience member and it felt like storytelling.”

Kani says he enjoys the “collective and spontaneous response” from audiences. It’s the reason why, like Prinsloo, acting on stage is his first love.

“It’s wonderful to be on the stage and feel the relationship with the audience,” he says. “It’s that relationship that becomes the wind beneath my wings and lets me fly like an eagle.”

Kani was back on the Baxter Theatre stage two years later, this time to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards. On that night, Prinsloo won Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull.

The two veteran and beloved actors are appearing together again in an Afrikaans adaptation of Driving Miss Daisy.

As was the case for Miss Julie, the play will explore the themes of race and prejudice, making it relevant for contemporary South African audiences.

Expect crowds to be flocking into the theatre this time around, not flocking out.

So Ry Miss Daisy (in Afrikaans with English surtitles) is at the Fugard Theatre in Cape Town from March 13 to April 1.