Exploring depths of trauma: Beer Adriaanse on role in 'Niggies'

BEER Adriaanse, one of the Niggies lead stars, has been celebrating some major milestones recently.

- KARISHMA DIPA

He will be turning 40 next week, and to cap off the festivities, the Silwerskerm winner is also celebrating the end of the first season of the riveting kykNET series, which has been enthralling viewers nationwide since it premiered in March.

The inaugural season of the Afrikaans show, which sees Adriaanse play Andre, a man who goes to extraordinary lengths as he seeks vengeance over the kidnapping and murder of his younger brother (portrayed by Janru Steenkamp), dropped its final episode on Tuesday.

And while the actor has been earning legions of fans for his work on productions such as Hotel and Fynskrif, what makes this role even more special for him is that it's his first foray out of comedy.

"I've mostly been in comedy projects or at least portrayed characters that lean towards comic relief, so this was virgin territory for me," he said during an interview with Independent Media Lifestyle.

Niggies is inspired by the harrowing case of cousins Issie Fourie and Petro Nel who were raped and shot dead in 1966 in an abandoned mine building outside Odendaalsrus in the Free State. This was after they disappeared after leaving to swim at the municipal pool.