Photographed by Darryl Cousins

"Knock's" La Mama cast, Melbourne, Australia.

Russell decided to write The Knock on the Door after returning illegally into South Africa in 1987.  He had borrowed someone else's passport, dyed his hair, and boarded a Luxavia flight to Johannesburg.  In Cape Town he got together with some students at UCT and it resulted in us taking the production to the Annual Festival for the Arts in Grahamstown.  

The play is centered around the plight of unemployed African exiles squatting in London.  Soon after, the military caught up with him, so Russell returned to London and produced his play at the Boston Arms.  Thereafter he traveled on to Melbourne, Australia where The Knock on the Door was produced very successfully, at La Mama Theatre.