When David Viviers steps onto the Flipside stage at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre this September, he’ll be carrying more than just a script. He’ll be carrying the weight of history, the intimacy of memory, and the quiet, stubborn spark of a character who refuses to be broken.
We spoke to David Viviers about his upcoming role in Moffie – the one-person stage adaptation of André Carl van der Merwe’s memoir – after its critically acclaimed, sold-out run in London.
Presented by the Common Humanity Arts Trust in association with The Baxter Theatre, directed by Greg Karvellas and adapted by Philip Rademeyer from the novel by André Carl van der Merwe, the play strips away everything but the story and the performer telling it.
For Viviers, the journey began long before the rehearsal room.
“My first encounter with the novel was back in high school,” he recalls. “I was in Grade 9, and it was the first time I’d really engaged with the border war and conscription. I didn’t know much about that time. I remember feeling shocked, moved, and completely drawn in, especially by the love scenes, which had this electricity to them. It was my first real entry into that part of our history.”
The role of Nicholas was first played by Kai Luke Brümmer in Oliver Hermanus’s 2019 film adaptation of the same book, with Brümmer reprising the role for the world premiere stage production in London in 2024. Stepping into the role now as Nicholas van der Swart, Viviers is mindful of both honouring what came before and making the role his own.
“It’s always a balance,” he says. “You step into something that works, but you have to find your own truth in it. For me, that’s been about exploring Nicholas’s softness and vulnerability, and finding moments of humour. I’ve known Kai for years, and it feels fitting to be handed the baton by him.”
Preparation meant diving deep into the period. Viviers re-read van der Merwe’s memoir, watched documentaries on conscription and the Angolan border war, including Pink Troops, about being gay in the army and studied accounts of post-traumatic stress among veterans.
“I wanted to understand not just the facts, but the atmosphere – what it would have felt like to be there,” he explains.
“Physically, I kept up my exercise routine. The training then was ruthless, and I wanted that in my body, even if the play isn’t overly physical.”
The rehearsal process has brought unexpected discoveries.
“Nicholas has a spark, a sense of humour,” Viviers says. “It’s a heavy play, but those lighter moments make the audience care about him. They’re also a reminder that the system didn’t crush that part of him.”
Karvellas’s stripped-back approach, set within Niall Griffin’s minimalist design, has forced Viviers to return to the fundamentals of performance.
“It’s just me, the text, and the audience,” he says. “No costume changes or props to hide behind. I learned the script before rehearsals so we could focus on shaping it like a piece of music, shifting pace, tone, and emotion to draw people in.”
While Moffie is set in 1980s South Africa, its themes feel painfully current.
“A friend was recently warned not to be open about his sexuality before taking a job in the UAE,” Viviers says. “That kind of enforced secrecy is still a reality. Even in so-called liberal societies, people often feel they have to tailor themselves to fit in or be validated.”
He admits he once said he’d never do a one-person show.
“It’s terrifying,” he laughs. “But I knew if I said no because I was scared, I’d regret it. And in a way, the vulnerability of being alone on stage mirrors Nicholas’s own isolation.”
Looking ahead to opening night, Viviers names the stamina needed for an 85-minute monologue as his biggest challenge, but also his greatest opportunity.
“If people leave the theatre with a sense of hope from seeing someone survive a system designed to break them, that’s enough,” he says. “It’s in the show’s tagline: ‘These men trying to mould us into something we’re not … they must not be able to touch us.’”
Moffie runs at the Baxter Theatre Flipside from 2–27 September 2025. Book through Webtickets and witness a production that confronts South Africa’s past while speaking urgently to the present.
One Comment
what a brilliant production and the performance of David was incredible. Many memories resurfaced for someone like me who had been through conscription and were in Namibia