HARTKLOP to Play Artscape Arena This Month

Hartklop, starring Christo Davids and Nadia Valvekens, will run 20 - 23 December at 20:00 at Artscape Arena at Artscape Theatre Centre. Visit Computicket for bookings.

Where do your deepest loyalties lie? With your parents? Your lover? Who do you choose when the choice lies between life and death?

Prof. Christiaan Barnard transplanted the first human heart on 3 December 1967. This ground-breaking medical achievement grabbed the attention of the world for decades to follow.

This year in December South Africa will be celebrating 50 years of world leadership in cardiothoracic surgery, and it presents a unique opportunity to be staging Hartklop, a play featuring the story of Prof. Christiaan Barnard, commemorating Prof. Barnard's achievement.

It is 2017. Two journalists start writing the story of Prof. Christiaan Barnard. Working together, their relationship deepens into love.

Jessica, played by Nadia Valvekens, and her lover Daniel Cloete, played by Christo Davids, soon contend with personal problems far more complicated than the journalistic challenge they face to tell the Chris Barnard story.

The play will form part of the city's celebration which reaches far beyond its own metropolitan boundaries. It fits in with a Proudly South Africa achievement and a "product" to be sold to the world.

A charismatic personality on the world stage, material from Dr. Barnard's personal life gives a personal edge to the play. His credo is an inspiration for all:

If you think you are beaten, you are.

If you think you dare not, you won't.

If you like to win, but don't think you can,

It's almost a cinch that you won't.

Life's battles don't always go

To the strongest or fastest man

But sooner or later the person who wins

Is the person who thinks he can.

- Walter D. Wintle (Adapted)

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