The Moth - by Artistic Director, Jake Murray (Elysium Theatre)
Victor Power as John in ‘The Moth’ (Covid Monologue, Winner of Best Monologue Kwanzaa Film Festival, NYC 2023.)
On the 27th of February 2025, Elysium Theatre Company present the world premiere of The Moth, a new play by South African-born British writer Paul Herzberg.
This is not the first South African play Elysium have produced. One of our proudest achievements is what we called the Fugard Trilogy, three productions produced over four years comprising three plays by legendary South African playwright Athol Fugard presenting a panorama of life under Apartheid: Playland, Hello And Goodbye and the 50th Anniversary tour of The Island, co-authored by Winston Ntshona and John Kani. All spoke powerfully and directly to a modern audience, even though the pieces were set in an apparently bygone era. Paul Herzberg’s drama completes this cycle and brings the story right up to date, here in Britain.
Elysium’s 2023 50th anniversary tour of ‘The Island’ by Athol Fugard. Victoria Wai Photography.
The Moth
Set in present, 30 years after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, The Moth is an urgent, visceral play about race, identity, punishment and forgiveness triggered by a chance encounter of two men on opposite sides of the divide, John Josana, the black British son of an ANC man who has risen to become a prominent activist and journalist and Marius Muller, a white South African veteran of the Angolan War suffering from PTSD after an atrocity he was part of. A chance encounter on a train in the 1990s sets in motion a chain of events that profoundly changes their lives forever.
A gripping political thriller, The Moth cuts right to the heart of what is dividing our societies at the moment: racism and racial tension, the legacy of history, nationalism and identity and so much else. Most challengingly it does so by exploring the deep scars left and the shadow cast by apartheid some thirty years on; as the character of John says, ‘the idea of it, the willingness, the fear, the madness, that hasn’t gone’.
Micky Cochrane as Marius (l) and Faz Singhateh as John (r) rehearsing The Moth. Photography Paul G Clark.
Faz Singhateh as John (l) and playwright Paul Herzberg (r), rehearsing The Moth. Photography Paul G Clark.
30 years on from the fall of apartheid
As a teenager growing up in the ’80s, apartheid was a very real part of my mental landscape. The clear injustice, the clear oppression, the very clear battle lines of right and wrong made it a paradigm for racial conflicts everywhere. There was no ambiguity. Watching the process of it coming to an end was extraordinary. To see Mandela go free and then become the first President of a free South Africa was a dream. Looking back it’s easy to forget just how optimistic that time was. The end of Apartheid came in the wake of the end of the Cold War, the Berlin Wall coming down, freedom for so many countries and coincided almost exactly with the beginning of the Olso Accords, which, although doomed to failure, arguably remained our best chance for peace in the Middle East.
Fast forward 30 years and the world we live in seems completely absent of the optimism felt by many or the fulfilment of promises it offered. Racial, ethnic, national and religious divisions are reasserted. One person’s freedom is again being equated with the removal of freedom of someone else. Violence, aggression, stonewalling and intimidation instead of resolution and healing. The reality of the Holocaust is increasingly denied, the Cold War is a distant memory or not even a presence in the minds of subsequent generations. For many, the reality of what apartheid was is something they know nothing about. The horrors of the past seem to be forgotten, only to be repeated, either through ignorance, intent or through fear.
Enter ‘The Moth’, which tackles all this head on. Born in South Africa, where the human experience was inextricably bound within racial politics, playwright Paul Herzberg was conscripted into the South African army during the first Angolan War. Choosing to exile himself rather than serve further in the Apartheid war machine Paul left South Africa. Through The Moth, he hurls us into a journey which forces us to confront our deepest prejudices and complacencies. The play engages racial politics as a living, breathing reality that prowls with a raw ferocity and the legacy of apartheid that still effects its terrors today, the horror of war and the living purgatory for those affected by PTSD.
Through its two characters, John and Marius, Paul has embodied the complexity of controversy and questions coursing through our world. The Moth asks fundamental questions about the reality of change, whether the past can be atoned, who can forgive or be forgiven and whether the quest for redemption has any reality at all, relevant in South Africa, the UK, and beyond.
This drama is passionate and urgent. The Moth isn’t a moralistic tale preaching to the choir; it’s a gripping, raw journey that, amid its pain and horror, reveals a deep humanistic compassion for its characters. By exploring these two men with uncommon depth, it helps us better understand ourselves— true to the finest traditions of great theatre.
Join Us on the Journey
In 2002, I had the privilege of directing Paul’s powerful Angola/South Africa-themed play, The Dead Wait, at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, just a year after September 11. The play resonated deeply with audiences eager to make sense of conflicts between cultures and races. Its conclusion moved many to tears, offering a vision of a hard-fought, wounded path forward. Now, two decades later, it’s an even greater privilege to premiere The Moth. This work not only brings his vision into the present but challenges us to reflect deeply on ourselves and the changes needed for a better future.
With a tour spanning 25 venues in the North of England during Spring 2025, we invite you to join us on this journey. To book or learn more visit the Elysium Theatre website.
Productions by Elysium Theatre Company
Blog by Jake Murray, Artistic Director of Elysium Theatre Company, February 2025.
