| The Train Driver at the Fugard |
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| Tuesday, 23 February 2010 14:37 |
 The new Fugard Theatre, located in District Six, will open its first season with a world premiere by the legendary playwright from whom it takes its name. The Train Driver involves Roelf, the title character, trying to come to terms with the tragic accident in which he ran over a mother carrying her baby on her back. He meets up with Simon, a gravedigger who tends to the graves of the unknown dead – those who were never claimed or identified.
Set in a graveyard somewhere near Motherwell in the Easern Cape, the play explores Roelf’s torment as he tries to establish whether the mother committed suicide or not. He tries to determine whether Simon remembers burying a woman matching her description. Against the wishes of Simon the gravedigger, Roelf spends a few nights with him in his house, desperately trying to talk through what he has experienced and exorcise his demons.
Sean Taylor plays the train driver, with Owen Sejake in the role of the gravedigger. The Train Driver is based on a real event, and is dedicated to a family who died on the train tracks between Philippi and Nyanga on Friday 8 December 2000. The Train Driver opens 19 March 2010.
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