Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
A woman’s powerful story
Veteran actress stars in ‘Kamphoer – die verhaal van Susan Nell’ at the Baxter
GODDESS of the South African silver screen and stage, Sandra Prinsloo, is tackling the issue of rape, head-on, with her new production Kamphoer die verhaal van Susan Nell, which is on at the Baxter Theatre.
The drama is based on the best-selling and debut novel Kamphoer by Francois Smit and the non-fiction publication The Boer Whore by Nico Moolman.
This powerful play premiered as the flagship production of this year’s Free State Arts Festival in Bloemfontein recently, playing to great success with sold-out houses as well as overwhelming audience and media acclaim, receiving five-star reviews and received the award for Best National Theatre Debut at the festival’s Blinker Awards.
Based on a true story, South African theatre legend Prinsloo, appears in the challenging role of Susan Nell, who faced an unspeakable ordeal during the Anglo-Boer War (1899 - 1902) in the Winburg concentration camp. Following her father’s death during the war, Susan and her mother end up in a concentration camp where she is raped and left for dead by two British officers and a joiner. She survives the ordeal and qualifies as a psychiatric nurse in the Netherlands.
Sixteen years later, she travels to England during World War I and while serving at a military hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, she recognises a patient as one of her rapists. With this unfortunate reunion, Susan is once again confronted with the pain and humiliation of her past.
Weekend Argus sat down with Prinsloo to talk about the production and its relevance at this critical time in South Africa.
“It could not have been better timed. The book is fascinating. Nothing much has changed for women. The same things are still happening to women, the only difference is now women speak out,” she said.
Prinsloo admitted while she was encouraged by the men who spoke out and marched in the wake of the many murders, rapes and incidents of violence against women and children, there were still many men who did not want to get involved and make it their business.
“Look what it (rape) does to somebody’s life, what it does to your life, look how deep the hurt is, how deep the wounds are, wounds that don’t ever heal. It starts in every home, every school, every university,” said Prinsloo.
She said while she relished this role, it was a very difficult role to prepare for.
“It touches me deeply every night when I perform. I come off stage, shaking. It goes to the core of a woman’s self-esteem, self-love. Many women feel sullied and dirty by it. I hope this production helps to change the way women feel. Strangely, nobody has come up and admitted that this has happened to them. When I did cancer plays for example people would come up to me and say this has happened to me. There is still great ‘shame’ for women,” she said.
Prinsloo related the story of a woman, who was molested by her uncle as a child, and how she underwent a ceremony on the beach and washed herself in the sea, dressed in a white robe, reclaiming her virginity.
“During a performance in Potchefstroom, two of the stage hands were moved to tears when they learnt that the drama was based on a true story.”
When she is not performing at theatres across the country, Prinsloo can be seen on Drafstap on M-Net’s kykNET channel and she is also the star of: Die Testament, which is a popular online Afrikaans soapie. On what it takes to put on a one-woman production, Prinsloo said: “Theatre takes a lot of energy, but I love it. TV is worse (laughing) it’s long hours. A one-person show is different, you have to be so finely tuned to the audience, they become your supporting cast.” Prinsloo said, Kamphoer – die storie
van Susan Nell gave a voice to those who never had the words to tell their stories.