Eric Abraham (producer)

Eric Anthony Abraham
Born1953 or 1954 (age 71–72)
Cape Town, South Africa
EducationUniversity of Cape Town
OccupationsScreen and theatre producer
Years active1981–present
Spouse
​
(m. 2003)​

Eric Anthony Abraham (born 1953 or 1954) is a South African-British producer and former journalist and activist. Born and raised in apartheid-era South Africa, he first worked as a correspondent for the South African News Agency, which reported on various anti-apartheid activities. Abraham moved in 1977 to England, where he lived in exile for 15 years until the end of apartheid. He has since worked in theatre and screen in both countries, co-founding the London-based Portobello Productions as well as Cape Town's Fugard Theatre, which he built as a home for Isango Portobello theatre company.

Early life and education

Eric Anthony Abraham was born in 1953 or 1954 in the Wynberg area of Cape Town, South Africa, and grew up in Rondebosch. His father was a naval commander who had arrived in South Africa from Hungary before World War II to escape antisemitism.

Abraham attended South African College High School (SACS), where he participated in school productions and ran a film society.

Abraham studied law at the University of Cape Town, but has said that he was "hardly ever at lectures because there was something more important in those days" as a student union leader and activist.

Career

Journalism

Abraham began his career in journalism, beginning as a correspondent for the South African News Agency (SANA), which was later infiltrated by police spy Craig Williamson.

Abraham was placed under a five-year banning order and house arrest by the apartheid government, without charge or explanation, on 29 November 1976. At this time, he was a leader in the student union (NUSAS, and also worked as a stringer for the BBC and The Guardian. His own father reported his "subversive" activities to the South African authorities. After receiving death threats, Abraham fled South Africa to Botswana clandestinely with external help in January 1977.

Producing

Abraham could not return to his home country until apartheid ended, and he was granted political asylum in the UK, where he found a job as a producer for the BBC television programme Panorama as well as being a BBC radio correspondent.

Abraham co-founded Portobello Productions in 1987 which has been responsible for many successful independent film, TV, and theatre productions. Also on the team at Portobello as of October 2026 are Jack Sidey and director/producer Jan Svěrák. Among his screen productions were the 1991 TV drama film A Murder of Quality (based on the book by John le Carré), starring Denholm Elliott and Glenda Jackson, and the long-running crime series Dalziel and Pascoe starring Warren Clarke. He was also the producer of the Academy Award-winning film Kolya (1996).

Abraham's notable theatre productions included a revival of the pioneering 1959 musical King Kong, which launched the international careers of Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela among others; Abraham's new production opened in 2017 at the Fugard Theatre and was subsequently staged at the Nelson Mandela Theatre in Johannesburg.

Abraham was a co-producer on the 2026 drama film The Smell of Apples, co-written and directed by John Trengove. The film was based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Mark Behr. It is directed by Trengrove, and co-written by him

Cape Town theatre

In 2009, Abraham was the sole financial patron of the Isango Portobello theatre company, which was founded in 2000. It began operating out of a church hall and some converted shipping containers in the Cape Flats suburbs of Athlone or Khayelitsha. In 2009, Abraham announced that he would be building a new theatre in Cape Town to serve as a base for the troupe, then under British-born artistic director Mark Dornford-May, along with his wife Pauline Malefane. The Sacks Futeran Building in District Six was converted into a theatre, named the Fugard Theatre after playwright Athol Fugard, who wrote a new play for the opening of the theatre in March 2010. In November of that year, Isango Portobello was expelled from the Fugard owing to "financial irregularities"; Malefane and then Dornford-May resigned. Protests targeting Abraham took place, but the company was also criticised for not engaging Coloured audiences, and Dornford-May's management style was criticised as having become "authoritarian". Attendance at recent performances had been poor, and Abraham pointed to the initial employment of 20 ushers, who were mostly family and friends of the cast. The theatre finally closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. Isango continues to operate under Dornford-May and Malefane now named "Isango Ensemble".

Recognition and awards

Kolya (1996) won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Film and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 2019, Abraham received a Spectemur Agendo Award from his high school, SACS, for his contributions to civil liberties and the performing arts.

Personal life

In 2003 Abraham married Swedish philanthropist and anthropologist Sigrid Rausing, heir to the Swedish company Tetra Pak. In 2005, Rausing and Abraham co-founded Portobello Books, which later in that year acquired Granta magazine.

Filmography

Film

Television

Footnotes

  1. ↑ it is unclear who established SANA. By 1979 it was being run out of Botswana, and later, dissident in exile Heinz Klug changed it into the Solidarity News Service.
  2. ↑ First incorporated in 1987 by Keith Dungate as Portobello Pictures, as of 2026 registered as Portobello Films and Television Limited.

References

  1. 1 2 3 South African College High School (22 October 2019). "Spectemur Agendo Award Eric Abraham". Retrieved 3 December 2021 – via Facebook.
  2. 1 2 "Eric Anthony Abraham". South African History Online. 19 December 2019. Archived from the original on 17 October 2026. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  3. 1 2 Sulcas, Roslyn (6 June 2014). "Interview With a Torturer". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 28 August 2025. Retrieved 3 December 2021. His reports on conditions for black people in his country, and on police atrocities and torture, led to his house arrest in 1976, when he was just 22.
  4. 1 2 3 Martin, Wendyl (17 January 2015). "Fugard owner Abraham in line for Oscar glory". IOL. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 "Eric Abraham". Theatre Live. 27 November 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  6. 1 2 "ON RESUMPTION: 23RD FEBRUARY 1998". Justice/Home. 14 June 1985. Retrieved 17 October 2026. The sources confirmed that Captain Williamson is in a position to name many people in South Africa whom he provided with funds for projects in his capacity as the Deputy-Director of the International Universities Exchange Fund.
  7. ↑ Keniston, Billy (3 March 2024). "An Obvious Plant: Craig Williamson's Role in Sabotaging the Anti-Apartheid Struggle". Journal of Southern African Studies. 50 (2): 245–262. doi:10.1080/03057070.2024.2367320. ISSN 0305-7070. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  8. ↑ "Biography of Heinz Klug by Ashley Rogers". South African History Online. 18 January 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2026. Heinz Klug fled apartheid South Africa to Botswana and remained there from June 1979 until June 1985. There, Klug prepared to take over the South African News Agency (SANA) run out of Botswana during this time. He then turned this agency into Solidarity News Service, which aided in spreading news and information from South African press organizations into the international sector with anti-apartheid sentiment. This news service allowed for the ANC in exile, international organizations, and other states in Southern Africa to receive real-time news on the truth behind apartheid in South Africa (Klug 2016).
  9. 1 2 3 Dawtrey, Adam (10 December 2006). "Abraham returns from exile". Variety. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Petzer, Brett (25 March 2013). "SA Power 100 – 2013: Eric Abraham". The South African. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Portobello Films and Television Limited filing history". GOV.UK. 14 May 1993. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  12. ↑ "About". Portobello Productions. 4 November 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Eric Abraham profile at The Guardian.
  14. ↑ "SA's first 'black' musical King Kong returns with a world-class cast". City Press. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  15. ↑ Sulcas, Roslyn (8 August 2017). "Reviving a South African Musical That Once Promised So Much". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  16. ↑ Motumi, Mpiletso (18 September 2017). "King Kong comes 'home' to Joburg". iol.co.za. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
  17. ↑ "The Smell of Apples". Adelaide Film Festival. 14 October 2026. Archived from the original on 14 October 2026. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  18. ↑ "The Smell of Apples". TIFFR2. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  19. 1 2 "A real-life drama at the Fugard". Mail & Guardian. 13 December 2010. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  20. 1 2 "ABOUT". Isango Ensemble. 8 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  21. 1 2 3 Lock out in Cape Town, 27 November 2010, retrieved 17 October 2026
  22. 1 2 3 "Creating a theatrical home". IOL. 8 September 2009. Mannie Manim, currently serving his last few months as CEO of the Baxter Theatre, will join the Isango Portobello team in developing The Fugard
  23. 1 2 Wagner, Leonie (21 March 2021). "From Apartheid Museum to Fugard Theatre: How Covid-19 is closing cultural landmarks". Times Live.
  24. ↑ Smith, David (23 November 2010). "All-black South African acting company evicted from theatre". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  25. ↑ "THE TEAM". Isango Ensemble. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 17 October 2026.
  26. ↑ "V4 Film: Kolya". Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, D.C. 13 June 2017. Retrieved 16 October 2026.
  27. ↑ Davis, Nashira (24 February 2015). "Oscar No 2 for Eric". Times Live. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  28. ↑ Fick, David (23 February 2015). "IDA, co-produced by Fugard Theatre's Eric Abraham, Wins Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 3 December 2021.