Regent's University London Library
& Media Services Catalogue

Antony Sher's play I.D. is a drama about Demetrios Tsafendas, the man who in September 1966 killed Hendrik Verwoerd, President of South Africa and the architect of South African apartheid. It was first performed at the Almeida Theatre, London, on 4 September 2003. The play's action takes place mostly in South Africa between 1960 and 1999, with a few sequences earlier and elsewhere. It tells the true story of how Tsafendas, a political militant and drifter, came to assassinate Verwoerd. Of mixed parentage, but classified as 'White', Tsafendas is unable to marry the woman he loves because she is classified as 'Coloured'. Sickened by this injustice, and goaded by his monstrous alter ego Lintwurm - a parasite that emerges from his belly - Tsafendas stabs Verwoerd on the floor of the House in full view of his wife, his bodyguard and a chamber full of MPs. The play was inspired by the book A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden, as well as Jan Botha's book Verwoerd is Dead, and two documentary films: Guy Spiller's The Liberal and the Pirate and Liza Key's Furiosus. The premiere production was directed by Nancy Meckler and designed by Katrina Lindsay. It was performed by Jon Cartwright, Jonathan Duff, Alex Ferns, Paul Herzberg, Peter Landi, Lucian Msamati, Oscar Pearce, Antony Sher (as Tsafendas), Cleo Sylvestre, Christopher Wells, Marius Weyers (as Verwoerd) and Jennifer Woodburne.