Two Black scavengers emerge from the underbrush loaded with their total possessions – the makings of a shack and a battery of pots and pans but nothing to cook in them. They are the dregs of society, the stepped upon, the spat upon. The play is carefully structured as a dance – first with Lena’s solo, then with a pas de deux, then with Boesman’s verbal self-expression. An old man stumbles on the two Hottentots, and becomes the physical catalyst of their relationship, precipitating a crisis and a credible resolution.
