This follows its official world premiere at Cape Town's Fugard Theatre (where it runs through March 15) and a transfer to Johnannesburg's Market Theatre (March 20-April 6).

Directed by Jonathan Munby, the play is set in 1997 in Pretoria Central Prison in South Africa, where psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (Noma Dumezweni) prepares to sit opposite the apartheid regime's most notorious assassin, a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She is interviewing Eugene de Kock (Matthew Marsh) while he serves 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms and fraud. It is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Gobodo-Madikizela and explores her interviews with Eugene De Kock, her time on the TRC, and how a fundamentally moral person could become a mass murderer.

The production is designed by Paul Wills with lighting by Tim Mitchell and sound by Christopher Shutt.

Dumezweni's theatre credits include the Young Vic’s production of A Raisin in the Sun (Olivier Award), Henry V (Michael Grandage Company), Feast and Belong (both at the Royal Court), Adelaide Road, Little Eagles, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar (all RSC) and Six Characters in Search of an Author (Headlong at Chichester Festival's Minerva Theatre and the West End).

Marsh's extensive theatre credits include The Last of the Hausmanns, Blood and Gift, The Overwhelming and Copenhagen (all National Theatre), Gengarry Glen Ross (West End) and Proof (Menier Chocolate Factory). To book tickets, contact the box office on 020 7722 9301, or visit www.hampsteadtheatre.com for more details.