ABSTRACT

The fi rst locally initiated professional production of an Ibsen play in South Africa was an Afrikaans version of A Doll’s House (named Geleende Geld-that is, Borrowed Money-as a sop to contemporary audiences in rural areas), by the Paul de Groot Company in 1929. The play had 200 performances on its six-month tour through the country, playing mainly rural towns. What the chapter looks at is the place and the nature of this production amid the remarkable lack of negative response by the conservative Afrikaans community, and-conversely-the signifi cant cultural infl uence the production would have on shape and style of the future of South African theater.