The award winning theatre production The Unlikely Secret Agent will be staged for only three shows during the US Woordfees. Stagings will take place at Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof on Thursday 13 October at 18:00, Saturday 15 October at 15:00 and Sunday 16 October at 09:30.
The production is based on anti-apartheid struggle veteran Ronnie Kasrils’ award winning book of the same name. It explores the brave story of Eleanor, Kasrils’ wife, a secret agent for the movement, and her attempt to escape from the security police.
It is presented by Unlikely Productions and received eight Fleur du Cap nominations, with Paul du Toit winning the award for best producer. He also reworked the story for stage.
Eleanor (played by Erika Marais), an unassuming young single mother, is arrested at Griggs Bookstore in Durban, where she works, and is taken in for questioning. The police are on the hunt for her lover, the notorious “terrorist” “Red Ronnie”.
She finds herself detained under the 90-day detention act and brutally interrogated. They will “break her or hang her”. It’s a true story of bravery and hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds when the South Africa was on a knife’s edge in 1963.
Kasrils is wanted for his involvement in a string of sabotage bombings of electricity pylons, the Durban Post Office and the offices of the Special Branch. There is no point in Eleanor resisting, the police “know everything”. But do they really?
