A performance like no other – Sandra Prinsloo amazes Roodepoort

Sunday, 28 February officially marked the final performance of Kamphoer – Die verhaal van Susan Nell at the Roodepoort Theatre.

Cecilia du Toit’s extraordinary stage adaptation of the books, Kamphoer by Francois Smit and The Boer Whore by Nico Moolman, was directed by award-winning Lara Foot and told the true story of Susan Nell, who was sent to the Winburg concentration camp with her mother during the Anglo-Boer War.

The gut-wrenching play recounted how Susan was forced to relive the trauma of the camp when, 16 years after her escape, she travelled to England during WW1 to serve as a psychiatric nurse at a military hospital for shell-shocked soldiers and one of the patients was a man from her nightmares – an officer who had raped her in Winburg.

Record journalist, Amy Slocombe, had the privilege of attending the play’s opening night at the Roodepoort Theatre and spent the entire hour and a half performance in awe. Sandra Prinsloo took on the difficult task of telling Susan’s story in this solo production, and a better actress could not have been chosen. Sandra’s acting ability was unparalleled; the sheer emotion of her performance, and her ability to switch between laughter and full fledged tears sent chills down the backs of everyone in the audience.

Sandra may have been the only person on the stage, but her ability to tell Susan’s story made it seem as though there was an entire cast alongside her. The performance was the perfect balance between informative story-telling and a painful history lesson. The play was performed predominantly in Afrikaans, but this didn’t limit the variety of people in the audience. A few of the English-speaking audience members said they often struggle to understand Afrikaans, but they were still grateful to have witnessed the performance, reflecting on Sandra’s incredible ability to make sure everyone in the audience understood the story even if they didn’t understand the language.

From the lighting and sound, to the minimal props and spectacular story-telling, this play was the epitome of what theatre can be, and it is not surprising that tickets were sold out even before opening night. Sandra’s performance showed exactly why she is still so well-respected in the acting industry after 51 years of entertaining South Africa.