Statements After An Arrest Under The Immorality Act

Presented by The Fugard Theatre in partnership with the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, this compelling new co-production opened to rapturous responses at the 2019 KKNK festival.

Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality received five nominations at the 2019 KKNK Kanna Awards – Beste Teateraanbieding (Best Production), Beste Debuutwerk (Best Debut Production), Beste Teaterontwerp (Best Design) for Wolf Britz, Beste Akteur (Best Actor) for Marlo Minnaar, Beste Aktrise (Best Actress) for Liezl de Kock.Marlo Minnaar (7de Laan, Santa Gamka, Sara Se Geheim, Boland Moorde) is gripping as Errol Philander, with Liezl de Kock (Piet se Optelgoed, Crazy in Love, Pictures of You, African Gothic) equally captivating as Frieda Joubert.

Written in 1972, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act is set in apartheid South Africa, where relationships across the colour bar were a criminal offence. Two lovers – a coloured man and a white woman, meet secretly in the library where the woman works to make love and share their hopes and fears. A neighbour reports them to the police, who secretly photograph them from the informant’s backyard and eventually breaks in and arrest the couple under the inhuman and universally pilloried Immorality Act. The play is a compelling and deeply moving love story in which the physically and emotionally naked lovers expose not only their bodies but also their deepest longings for personal and emotional freedom.