Sunday Times
Athol Fugard, the grand old man of South African Theatre, has written a moving sequel to his earlier, more optimistic Valley Song. As a young girl, Veronica left the Karoo to make her name as a singer in Cape Town.
Now she is back. Spat out by the city, she is dying and determined to protect the future of her son. Fugard was writing at a time when the country’s president, Thabo Mbeki, was pursuing of denying that HIV causes Aids.
Strangely, though, it is not the playwright’s anger that comes across most strongly, but the exile’s love of stories and their power to evoke his homeland.
Cordelia Monsey’s tender production is illuminated by Cat Simmons’s strong-willed Veronica and by David Judge as her gawky, illiterate friend.