Speelgoed van glas, Nico Scheepers’ award-winning reworking and translation of Tennessee Williams’ English masterpiece,, The Glass Menagerie gets an interesting new look at The Baxter in August, performed in English and in Afrikaans.
Directed, translated and designed by Nico Scheepers, the star-studded cast includes Anna-Mart van der Merwe, Carla Smith, Ben Albertyn and Mark Elderkin.
Retaining the name The Glass Menagerie, this English version is Nico Scheepers’ new re-translation of his original Afrikaans interpretation and will be on stage from 31 July to 7 August 2025, in the Baxter Flipside.
This will be followed by the much-discussed standalone Afrikaans version, from 8 to 16 August.
The characters unravel the intricate web of love and loss, spun by a matriarch to keep her family together at all costs – a web from which they all long to escape. The Glass Menagerie is an intense, heart-wrenching tale of separation, and a gripping exploration of fragility, longing and the fallibility of family.
- Speelgoed van glas debuted at the Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees last year and was awarded in the following Woordtrofees categories: Best Play, Best Director (Nico Scheepers), Best Supporting Actress (Carla Smith), Best Supporting Actor (Mark Elderkin).
“The events revolve around a family with an absent father. Amanda Wingfield (Anna-Mart van der Merwe) does her best to keep her family together and to pretend that things are going better than they are, but over the course of the play we witness the attempts of her children, Laura (Carla Smith) and Tom (Ben Albertyn) to escape their situation and their mother’s grip,” writes Marina Griebenow in her review for INK.
“I think the interesting thing is that I couldn’t just use the original American English text, because I had completely adapted the Afrikaans production to the nineties in South Africa, with an Afrikaans family that has an English guest visit,” explains Director, Nico Scheepers
“Therefore, I had to translate the Afrikaans text back into English using my adaptation with all the references and language as the foundation. I thought the most successful way to do it in English was to still treat them as an Afrikaans family. The actors speak with Afrikaans accents and there are still Afrikaans words in the production, so that it is still authentically South African. They are a South African family, who speak a kind of “Anglikaans” thereby making the English they use serve almost as subtitles for English audience members. It was the only way that I could see the adaptation working. And even though everyone speaks English, Jim (Mark Elderkin) who arrives in the second half still feels like an English person visiting an Afrikaans family.”
For the Afrikaans interpretation, the ensemble remains faithful to the production that has enjoyed great success at the various arts festivals, says Nico.
“It is a privilege to be able to do a production so many times in a row, and to watch how the actors’ interpretations deepen and simmer. Their last performance at Innibos recently was probably the best performance of Speelgoed van glas to date,” says Nico.
Marina Griebenow likens the production to a magic spell. “It is clear that Speelgoed van glas, like Laura’s delicate and precious glass animals, is a gem that one will cherish and preserve for a long time. I look forward to seeing it again in Cape Town.”
This is a Toyota Stellenbosch Woordfees production, supported by NATi and the Baxter Theatre.
WHAT: The Glass Menagerie / Speelgoed van glas
WHERE:: Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7600
WHEN: & BOOKING: The Glass Menagerie | Speelgoed van glas
31 July to 7 August at The Baxter Flipside 8 to 16 August at The Baxter Flipside
Tickets: R160 to R210 at Webtickets Tickets: R160 to R210 at Webtickets
Age restriction: 13 with parental guidance
Duration: 60 minutes Tues to Sat at 19h30 Sat 15h30
