Afrikaans on off-Broadway

Afrikaans will hit the New York stage when an American's drama, titled Jacobsbaai, comes to the Cherry Lane Theatre on 28 July. Xhosa and Zulu dialogue will also be heard. Rebecca Kasper (in Mamma Mia! on Broadway), Waltrudis Buck (co-starred with Julia Roberts in Woody Allen's Everyone Says I Love You) and Daniel Fox (Generation Kill) are taking part. Ilse-Louise Herholdt, a South African musician in The Lion King, will play the role of Minette. A young Zulu boy, who lives in the US, will play the role of Sion. The American actor, James Tortora, was so impressed with Jacobsbaai on the Cape's West coast during a visit, that he wrote a drama which takes place in the guest house that he was staying in. His friend, Du Preez Strauss, translated the words for the Afrikaans character Hannes. James' drama is about the town being cut off when the only road in and out is blocked. The two American characters and a European woman who has adopted a black child, have to mix with the locals to get through the crisis.