Cast

THE AUTHOR … in his early sixties

ABRAAM YONKERS ('BUKS', ‘OUPA’)… in his seventies

VERONICA (his grand-daughter)… seventeen years old

Note. The role of THE AUTHOR and ‘BUKS’ must be played by the same actor

Valley Song premiered on 15 August 1995 at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, presented by Mannie Manim Productions. The production was directed by Athol Fugard and designed by Susan Hilferty, with lighting by Mannie Manim. Esmeralda Bihl played Veronica and Athol Fugard ^uks’ and The Author.

The play was subsequently performed at the Hilton Festival, at the Port Elizabeth Opera House and in the Momentum Theatre in Pretoria where Louis van Niekerk played ‘fluks’ and The Author.

On 24 October it opened at the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey and on 12 December at the Manhattan Theatre Club, New York, with Lisa Gay Hamilton in the role of Veronica and Athol Fugard as ‘Buks’ and The Author.

A bare stage. Enter VERONICA and THE AUTHOR. THE AUTHOR comes down and speaks directly to the audience

AUTHOR [producing a handful of pumpkin seeds from his pocket]: Genuine Karoo pumpkin seeds. Ja. ‘Ware Karoo Pampoen saad!’ This is the so-called ‘Flat White Boer’ variety - that's the actual name! - Flat White Boer pumpkin. You know them - those big, round, white beauties - you sometimes still see them on the roofs of little farm cottages when you drive through the Karoo - well, this is how they start out. One of these, together with a little prayer for rain, in a hole in the ground. And in a good year, when you get that rain, this little handful could give you up to a hundred of those beauties! Now is not the time to plant them. In my village, in the Sneeuberg Mountains, the soil is still bone dry and rock hard with frost - our winters are a long and serious affair! So you put them away in a little tin - with a lid - the mice get very hungry in winter! - and you put the tin on a shelf in the kitchen or the garage or wherever you keep your other seeds - cabbage, carrot, beetroot, beans, onion, peas, mealies … they all do well in the Valley - and you wait for spring. Because when that comes …!