Joburg Theatre brings to life Dancing the Death Drill, a profoundly moving production adapted from Fred Khumalo’s 2017 historical novel. The performance unfolds like a slow-burning revelation, beginning in a Paris restaurant in 1958, where a shocking act of violence sets off a quest to unravel the life of Pitso Motaung, a South African WWI soldier aboard the ill-fated SS Mendi. Khumalo’s novel spins a narrative web that traverses continents and generations, capturing the tender, complex, and often brutal realities of war, colonialism, racial politics, and human resilience. On the stage, these layered themes are rendered with visceral intensity.