By Daniel Nelson

A Human Being Died That Night – a 90-minute drama at the Hampstead Theatre about Eugene De Kock aka ‘Prime Evil’ for his apartheid-era crimes – has been given an extraordinary twist by a 28 May court ruling that South Africa’s justice minister should consider giving him parole.

De Kock is serving  212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

The former former police colonel was in charge of a police death squad, was arrested in mid-1994 and convicted and sentenced two years later. Some of his former colleagues testified in return for indemnity from prosecution. – a stand which the play makes clear he is angry about.

De Kock testified before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about the inner workings of the apartheid-era police force but was refused amnesty on some of the murders that were not deemed to be politically motivated. 

The play stems from a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist whose doctoral thesis was on ‘Legacies of violence: An in-depth analysis of two case studies based on interviews with perpetrators of a “necklace” murder and with Eugene de Kock’.

Playwright Nicholas Wright read it, talked to Gobodo-Madikizela, listened to recordings she had made with the prisoner, perused the Truth Commission proceedings and added dialogue of his own,

The result is this fascinating confrontation between the psychologist and the manacled killer, who at first meeting raises the spectre of a Hannibal Lecter-type conversation – perhaps as a way of differentiating himself from a murderer.

All I have to say about it is: if you are interested in human rights, responsibility for rights’ abuses, justice, culpability, terrorism, state power, and/or South Africa, go and see it.

And if you just want an absorbing, taut, intelligent hour-and-a-half in the theatre, ditto.

It’s not revelatory, in that if you’ve read and thought about such issues you won’t be surprised. But focussing on a particular individual gives it punch, and it’s beautifully performed — though I never felt fully comfortable with the breaking of the intensity of the meeting by having De Kock repeatedly and partially turning away from his interviewer and towards the audience.

The sense of getting an insight into the mind of a state-sanctioned killer was also worryingly diluted by not knowing how much was invented and what was verbatim.

Similarly, my perhaps overly literalist approach made me worry about whether some of De Kock’s emotional responses were the result of observation or were added for dramatic effect: once or twice that affected the way I made up my mind about his credibility, an engagement that  of course is one of the ways the writer makes the piece work.

Above and beyond the drama, there are several moments when a phrase or idea resonates way beyond one prison interview – such as the remark which gives the play its title. It raises the issue, at least  in the minds of the killer, of the psychological difference between  killing face to face and killing at a distance, as with drones.

But for me the most crucial moment came with De Kock’s words – explanation? justification? accusation? – about the state’s ruthlessness in  fighting terrorism, which is how white South Africa saw the African National Congress’ struggle. It’s not an original thought, but it needs to be reiterated again and again: that the use of murder, torture and law-breaking in the fight against terrorism, whether “communist” revolutionaries then or religious fundamentalists now, is self-destructive. 

• A Human Being Died That Night is at the Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, NW3, until 21 June. Info: http://www.hampsteadtheatre.com /  7722 9301/ boxoffice@hampsteadtheatre.com

+ Court tells justice minister to consider parole for De Kock

* All global justice events in London

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