Following a powerful premiere in Cape Town and widespread acclaim at South
Africa’s National Arts Festival, the gripping solo play Beggared in S.A. now makes its international
debut at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Based on a true story and written by the beggar himself, Stewart Clarke, this raw and redemptive work was shaped over three years in a workshop environment with director Gideon DeWet.
Performed by South African actor Sean Higgs, the play is a searing portrayal of one man’s fall from privilege–and his transformation through the spirit of Ubuntu.
Once a white South African raised with every advantage, Clarke’s life collapses. Homeless and destitute, he takes to the streets with a cardboard sign. But hope arrives from the most unexpected place: a township shack and the poor, black South Africans who offer him more humanity than the world he once ruled. Their belief in Ubuntu–the philosophy of “I am because we are”–rebuilds him from the inside out.
“This is the story of a man who lost everything–except his soul. And maybe that was the point.” –
Sean Higgs
Performed with unflinching honesty, dark humour, and deep compassion, Beggared in S.A. is a 60-minute solo tour de force that invites audiences to question what we truly value–and who we become when the masks fall away.
A once-privileged white man loses everything in post-apartheid South Africa–and finds redemption
Fringe
in the townships through Ubuntu. Based on a true story. Written by the beggar himself. Raw, funny,
haunting. Performed by Sean Higgs. Directed by Gideon DeWet
Gideon DeWet
I bumped into Stewart Clark, a former ballet dancer and hairdresser, and he told me he was living on the street and begging by the robot (traffic light).
I told him to write it all down as I could not help him financially. He did and I spent the next two years editing and directing Stewart in the play.
After 3 performances and 2 fundraisers that raised enough money for his cataract operation, Stewart developed epilepsy and did not want to go on a stage again.I then approached Sean Higgs to take the part of The Beggar.
Previously we met at the University of Cape Town Drama School in 1984 and have done a lot of theatre work thereafter.
We rehearsed for 6 months via Whatsapp until Sean came to South Africa and we had 2 weeks of face-to-face rehearsals before opening Beggared in Sa at The Masque Theatre. So far, a total of 19 performances in 7 venues in Cape Town and in the Eastern Cape, including the National Arts Festival, formerly known as the Grahamstown Festival.
