Fred Khumalo’s novel Dancing The Death Drill was adapted for stage and performed at the Joburg Theatre from September 9 – 28, 2025.
In 1917, the British ship the SS Mendi launched from the British colony Cape Town, South Africa, with hundreds of natives of the Southern African country to take part in the European war dubbed The Great War. It was carrying 823 men of the 5th Battalion of the South African Native Labour Corps to serve in France. On February 21, the cargo ship Darro accidentally rammed Mendi’s starboard quarter, which led to the Mendi sinking, killing 616 Southern Africans – 607 black troops, nine white officers & NCOs, and 30 crew.
In 2017, a hundred years later, South African novelist, short story writer, and journalist Fred Khumalo wrote the novel Dancing The Death Drill, centreing on this incident, published by Penguin Random House South Africa. In the novel, Pitso Motaung, a mixed-race South African who had volunteered to fight for the British army in the First World War, is its protagonist, with his long-time friend, celebrated jazz musician and artist Jerry Moloto, as another key character. It was widely celebrated in South African literary circles and travelled well with translations in German, Setswana, and isiZulu already in the public domain. It won the Best Fiction Single Authored Volume in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 2019, underscoring its scholarly impact and contribution to the field.
In 2025, the novel got a new lease of life as the play Dancing The Death Drill, directed by James Ngcobo, adapted by Palesa Mazamisa and James Ngcobo. The original music score was composed by Msaki with choreography by Luyanda Sidiya, meaning this was a full-on musical.
“We made this play for those who have not read the novel,” said Palesa Mazamisa to this blogger when he attended one of the performances. “We are trying to do more local productions here at the Joburg Theatre.”
While the play remains true to the novel, it follows a different timeline, which works well for the stage but can be somewhat jarring for those who have read the book. It follows an arrested Pitso, who survives the sinking of the Mendi, alongside Moloto, in a court scene that describes the incident that leads to the death of the largest number of South African citizens at sea.
It is a full musical production with singing and dancing from many of the cast members, including Pitso (Clint Brink), Moloto, the ship captain, and Pitso’s love interest, Marie Therese (Sharon Spiegel Wagner). It introduces three narrators, two male and one female, who guide the audience through the experience with humor and care, a portrayal welcomed for its portrayal of one of South Africa’s most tragic incidents in the twentieth century.
The show included a dozen or so dancers who were both important during the musical numbers but also were used to move items about during scene changes. It was rounded out by four background singers and a keyboard player, and a violinist who blew the audience away with a solo.
“I never imagined that this novel would make it to the stage,” said Fred Khumalo. “I have watched it numerous times, and every time I see it, they have added something new.”
It was a wonderful tribute to one of the most important historical novels written by an African in the last decade.
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