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A Note from Daphne Kuhn
It brings me great joy to welcome you to Theatre on the Square for this new production. I am particularly delighted to be working once again with Gail, Fiona and Graham – theatre practitioners whose work I admire deeply and whose commitment to storytelling continues to resonate with audiences in the most meaningful way.
At its heart, theatre is about connection. It is about sharing stories that matter – stories that challenge, that inspire, that remind us of who we are and who we aspire to be. Bringing a life such as that of Albie Sachs to the stage feels not only important, but necessary. These are the stories that deserve to be held in a space like Theatre on the Square – intimate, immediate and alive.
As you sit here this evening, I hope you feel part of something more than just an audience. Theatre on the Square has always been a home for stories, for artists and for all of you who return to share in these moments with us.
Thank you for being here. I hope you enjoy every moment of this special new production about anti-apartheid activist, Albie Sachs – a human story.
Please take a moment to ensure your phones are on silent.
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Troupe Theatre Company and Baxter Theatre in Association with Daphne Kuhn present
ALBIE SACHS, FATHERS, SONS, AND SOFT VENGEANCE
CREDITS
Written by GAIL LOUW
Directed by FIONA RAMSAY
Starring GRAHAM HOPKINS
Voice of Oliver – OLIVER SACHS
Lighting Designer: OLIVER HAUSER
Sound Designer: DEAN PITMAN
Short arm: JAMES DEE
Set designed by FIONA RAMSAY and GRAHAM HOPKINS
Photos on the Stage Set
YOUNG SOLLY SACHS – Courtesy of the Albie Collection
YOUNGER ALBIE SACHS – Photographer: Sol Carvalho
YOUNGER OLIVER SACHS – Photographer: Steve Gordon Music Pics
OLDER SOLLY SACHS – Courtesy of the Albie Collection
OLDER ALBIE SACHS – Jonathan Reese
OLDER OLIVER SACHS – Carolyn Parton at Albie Awards 2025
Photographic Prints by ELSIGNS
SPECIAL THANKS TO
Carolyn Parton, Albie Sachs, Vanessa Sachs, Oliver Sachs, Di Jacobson, Handspring Puppet Company, Baxter Theatre, Daphne Kuhn, The Albie Collection www.thealbiecollection.org
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Writer, GAIL LOUW, actor GRAHAM HOPKINS and director FIONA RAMSAY
ALBIE SACHS, FATHERS, SONS, AND SOFT VENGEANCE
A fitting tribute to Judge Albie Sachs in his 91st year once called the moral conscience of post-apartheid South Africa and a living example of how to hold pain, power, and principle in balance.
Albie Sachs: Fathers, Sons and Soft Vengeance is a play honouring the activist, survivor and architect of South Africa’s democratic legal order, that embraces his relationship as a son, a father and his transformative power of the human spirit. The one-person play presents a moving tapestry of Albie’s life weaving the threads of the bomb attack he endured, his relationship with that trauma, the relationship with his father and sons, and reminds us that justice and empathy can heal even the deepest wounds.
The play explores his unshakable sense of justice: at just 17 years old, he marched against apartheid laws. In his commitment to the struggle he was not hardened by the violence and repression of apartheid and never lost his compassion. Rather than calling for revenge, Sachs famously said he hoped for a “soft vengeance” – a world where South Africa would become democratic and just.
Sachs at the age of 71 with his wife architect Vanessa September, became a father again. He has spoken movingly about the joy and humility of becoming a parent in his old age, describing it as his ‘greatest adventure’. There’s something deeply touching about a man who, after facing death and decades of struggle, finds solace and meaning in the everyday rituals and human dignity of fatherhood and partnership.
Albie describes the great tribute of the launch of The Albies, in 2022 by warriors for justice, fighting against inequality, authoritarianism, and all the forces fighting democracy Amal and George Clooney through the Clooney Foundation for Justice, annual awards honouring courageous global justice defenders – journalists, human rights activists, and survivors – who face great risk. Named after South African Justice Albie Sachs the awards highlight those protecting democracy and human rights worldwide.
Albie Sachs is a man who radiates grace. He shows us that justice does not have to be cold. That law can have a heart. That forgiveness is not weakness but strength. That a person can endure the worst and still emerge full of hope. Known for his gentle humour, his easy laugh, and his resilience. After the bombing, he learned to write with his left hand, to live again, and to love again.
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GAIL LOUW (writer) is a multi-award-winning playwright. Twenty-one of her plays have been produced and many more productions have been performed throughout the world.
In 2024, a Gail Louw Season of four plays was held at The Playground Theatre in London. In 2023, three plays were performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Her play ‘Blonde Poison’ continues to be produced widely, with productions at The Sydney Opera House, Auckland, Berlin, South Africa and the USA. Blonde Poison has won several awards and was the flagship production at the Hilton Arts Festival in South Africa. ‘Duwayne’ won Best New Play at Brighton Festival and Fringe 2014. ‘Miss Dietrich Regrets’ has been produced in Prague in Czech continually from 2017 to the present. ‘And this is my friend Mr Laurel’ began to tour in 2012 and continues to the present. ‘Shackleton’s Carpenter’ is another play that has toured throughout the UK and Ireland and performed on the Queen Mary 11, together with playwriting workshops, during a crossing from New York in 2022.
Thirteen plays have been published by Oberon Books, now Bloomsbury, in three collections and three standalone books. Five other plays have been published by Amazon as part of the Gail Louw Play Series.
Before she became a full-time playwright and novelist, Gail was an academic at the Institute of Postgraduate Medicine in Brighton, where she has lived since coming to England from South Africa in 1976.
Her debut novel ‘Rika’s Rooms’ has been published by Waterloo Press and is available on Kindle and Amazon.
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GRAHAM HOPKINS (Albie Sachs)
Graham Hopkins is a highly experienced South African actor, voice artist and theatre performer with over 40 years in the industry, known for his versatile work in film, TV, and stage. Theatre being his favourite medium, he has appeared in professional stage productions every year since 1983, with the obvious exception of 2020. Most recently, he played Malvolio at the Maynardville Open Air Theatre in 2026. Before that he appeared as Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady, for which he won a Fleur du Cap award and Sir Wilfrid Robarts in Agatha Christie’s Witness For the Prosecution. In 2022 and 2023 he appeared in Hansard, by Simon Woods, alongside long-time friend and colleague Fiona Ramsay at the Theatre on the Square. Leading roles in film and TV productions include Hapgood; The Native Who Caused All the Trouble; Barney Barnato; Hotnotsgode; The Lab; Warrior; Mr Johnson and The Girl from St Agnes. He has also performed in musical theatre, both here and in the UK. Memorable Shakespeare performances include Macbeth, Jacques in As You Like It, Antipholus of Syracuse in Comedy of Errors and King Lear in a production at the University of Indiana in 2016.
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DR FIONA RAMSAY (director) [PhD [Wits] MA [Wits] BA Hons.[UCT]] is a renowned actress, director and vocal coach, a former senior lecturer and Head of the Theatre and Performance Department at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Fiona has extensive experience in theatre, film and television as an actress, director and vocal and acting coach, with a focus on work that explores and examines South African culture at the core. Fiona moves easily from her role as academic and teacher, to director to actress and vocal coach and believes that involvement in each discipline informs the other.
Fiona curated festivals for Young Writers and Directors at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg and directed such notable projects as My Country Duty by Mike Van Graan, Guga Mzimba: The life of Gerard Sekoto & Hallelujah! – both written by Xoli Norman, The Pen written by Monde Mayephu, The Musical Woes of Juliet and her Romeo and Shakespeareaze, devised theatre for Shakespeare Festivals with Wits Students.
Fiona has collaborated with Gail Louw in a successful production of Blonde Poison which recently won an Offie Award [Off West End] and a Fleur Du Cap Award for Best Solo Performance. She performed in Miss Dietrich Regrets, also by Gail Louw and won a Naledi Award for Best Actress. She recently graduated with a PhD on the archive of her work spanning 40 years examining cultural appropriateness vs cultural appropriation in vocal choices and performance.
Fiona is the daughter of the late Raymond Louw former editor of the Rand Daily Mail and has a longstanding interest in political issues of the country and in paying tribute to the heroes who brought about an end to apartheid.
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
Fiona Ramsay
Staging a play on the life of Albie Sachs offers rich emotional and dramatic terrain as his story is both epic and intimate – spanning resistance, loss, recovery and fatherhood . To do it justice, I hope the production captures not only what happened to Albie, what he did, who he is but also his moral vision, emotional resilience, and unwavering idealism.
Albie’s severe trauma is a metaphor for the immeasurable damage and cruelty caused by the apartheid regime, and his courageous recovery is emblematic of healing and how the people of South Africa continue to do.
The play navigates a life both public and private – a poetic slice of biography, not simply recounting facts but told with the lilt and lyricism of Albie’s personal recollections. I hope the audience leaves not only with more knowledge of this great man but also inspired with hope and joy.
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A collection of special photographs of ALBIE SACHS,
Albie Sachs in Maputo in front of the mural ‘A Cry of Happiness’ in 1985
Photographer: Moira Fojaz
Albie Sachs in Maputo Central Hospital 1988
Photographer: Unknown
Albie, Oliver and Vanessa Sachs 2010
Photographer: Steve Gordon Music Pics
Albie and law clerks Deepak Gupta, Zanele Majola and Farzana Bardat, in front of Skotnes-Budaza artwork.
Photographer: Unknown/ Date Unknown
Oliver Sachs, George Clooney, Albie Sachs. Amal Clooney and Vanessa Sachs at the ALBIE AWARDS 2025
Photographer: Carolyn Parton
Albie on the beach at Clifton circa 2010
Photograph: Supplied by the Abby Ginzberg Productions
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Troupe Theatre Company was founded in Cape Town, South Africa in 1978 to celebrate a spirit of theatre research and to create a repertoire of exciting productions, inspirational performance events and effective educational processes that emphasise theatricality, innovation and imagination in the act of theatre. Exploring historical, contemporary and stylistic contexts. The company is dedicated to raising levels of resource and energising audiences and theatre practitioners and aims to be a moving force in the lives and minds of people in relation to changing local and global contexts.
Founder Members: Fiona Ramsay, Richard E Grant and Fred Abrahamse
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DAPHNE KUHN is a well-known South African theatre producer, artistic director and owner of the THEATRE ON THE SQUARE in Sandton. She began her career in the arts as an actress, working in both film, TV and theatre. Daphne Kuhn, holds an MA Degree in Drama from Pretoria University and her special skills range from acting to directing, PR to producing.
In 1994, Kuhn founded Theatre on the Square, first in Rosebank, then in Sandton in 1997.
This 200-seater theatre is one of Johannesburg’s most popular venues for both local and international productions. Over the years, the theatre has showcased a diverse range of plays, from classic dramas and musicals to contemporary works, experimental productions, comedies and youth theatre. Kuhn has been instrumental in bringing many important international plays to South African audiences, including the South African premieres of plays like HANSARD, SOME GIRLS, SHIRLEY VALENTINE, TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, ROSE, HARD LOVE, ROMANCE, VINCENT, THE TRAMP, SARAJEVO, NOBODY TOLD ME, DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and most recently THE OPERA SINGER. Theatre on the Square has produced and presented more than 3000 South African plays, concerts and corporate events. Daphne has also nurtured the talents of many South African artists, providing a platform for emerging writers, directors, and performers to showcase their work while generating thousands of work opportunities for those in the industry. In addition to her work at Theatre on the Square, Kuhn has also produced several successful productions that have toured to other venues around South Africa. For her contributions to South African theatre, Kuhn has received numerous accolades, including the Naledi Theatre Award for Executive Producer for her contribution to South African theatre. She continues to be a driving force in the South African theatre scene and her work has helped to shape and elevate the country’s cultural landscape.
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For THEATRE ON THE SQUARE
Owner / Producer / Artistic Director: DAPHNE KUHN
Resident Stage Manager: REGINA DUBE
Technical Manager: LOFTUS MOHALE
Online & Design: MIKA STEFANO
Front Of House Manager: MELIDAH THAKADU
Bar and Assistant Technical Manager: REGGIE MATHEBE
Technical Assistant: NHLANHLA ZUNGU
Production Assistant: ZA MVUBELO
Photographs for Theatre on the Square: PHILIP KUHN
Theatre Assistants: MAGDALENE GRACE and PATRICIA RAMOTATHA
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Don’t forget to switch your phone to silent during the show!
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