Hinterland at Artscape Arena

The story revolves around a fictional meeting of two giants of South African history that could have changed the course of our history. Deeply controversial at present and more than a hundred years after his death, Cecil John Rhodes still enjoys fame and notoriety, as Southern Africa’s arch-imperialist, while the multi-talented man of letters, Sol Plaatje, was one of the ANC’s founding fathers in 1912.

Plaatje (Sipho Mahlatshana) and Rhodes (David Dukas) meet while Kimberley is besieged during the Anglo-Boer War. In the autumn of his life, Rhodes, the king of diamonds, hires the young Plaatje as his new secretary and the two develop the unlikeliest of friendships, full of humour, warmth and pathos. But the country is changing and as Plaatje’s political career begins to dawn, the two men become set on a collision course that will change their lives.