Hitchcock’s Psycho with a healthy dose of insanity and a South African spin, Reza de Wet’s African Gothic packs quite a punch for a four-man play. Described by The Guardian as a “flesh-creeping metaphor for colonial decay”, the play follows a brother and sister and their old nanny as they exist in ritualistic seclusion, suspended in time and meandering between reality and delusion in a derelict farmhouse.

Role-playing traumatic experiences of their childhood as games, the siblings rise at sunset and neglect the drought-stricken land for a world of child-like fancies and dark secrets while their ever-silent and intimidating nanny watches on (never has the sound of chopping vegetables sounded so menacing). When a lawyer from Bloemfontein arrives bearing news of an inheritance however, their delusional idyll is shattered. Amidst plot twists and “what on earth?” moments, secrets emerge, each revelation darker than the last.

This production of the play by UJ Arts & Culture premiered to sold-out runs at the 2018 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and is a culmination of a project involving over 300 students and lecturers from the University of Johannesburg's FADA department.

A gothic horror filled with suspense, repulsion, madness, mystery and tragedy, this is a bold play that is not for the faint-hearted or younger audiences.