The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek

Athol Fugard’s new play – The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek – opened at the Fugard Theatre Studio on 23 August 2016 and was written and directed by Athol Fugard and co-directed by Paula Fourie. A story inspired by the life of a farmworker called Nukain Mabuza, a self-taught artist, living in segregated pre-liberation South Africa. The play enjoyed a highly acclaimed debut season in New York in 2015, which was extended several times.

Ageing Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks on a koppie at Revolver Creek into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Aided by his young companion Bokkie, we now find Nukain confronting his last challenge — to paint the massive boulder at the summit. Yet before long, the landowner’s wife, Elmarie Kleynhans, arrives and makes demands about the painting, laying bare the profound rifts of a country hurtling towards the end of apartheid. When Bokkie – now known as Jonathan Sejake – returns years later, it is to confront the legacy of Revolver Creek left to him as a young man trying to find his place in the new South Africa.