The Sewing Machine / Die Naaimasjien at The South African State Theatre

In January 2009, when director Hennie van Greunen and actress Sandra Prinsloo started rehearsals on Rachelle Greeff’s Nagtegaal Text Prize-winning script, they had no idea that more than four years later they would still be touching people around the globe with this poignant, beautiful play. The Afrikaans version of the play is in its fourth year and its popularity shows no evidence of waning. The English version made its debut in 2012. Magdaleen has joined the ranks of the immortal female characters in the South African playbook: from Fiela and Makiet to Helen Martins, and Hester. This octogenarian whose world has shrunk from the endless expanse of her father’s fruit farm to the small room in the retirement home where she reflects on her life, is at once endearing, infuriating and immediately recognisable. Her journey focuses on the personal, on the family, while the dysfunctional political past of her beloved South Africa forms a harsh background to her own struggles and obstacles.