Talk:A Place with the Pigs

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. You can locate your hook here. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by AirshipJungleman29 (talk) 15:21, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

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• ... that Athol Fugard based A Place with the Pigs on a real-life World War II deserter who hid in a pigsty until 1985?

• Source: "A PLACE WITH THE PIGS | Yale Repertory Theatre". yalerep.org. Retrieved 2026-02-23. The writing of this play was provoked by the true story of Pavel Ivanovich Navrotsky, a deserter from the Soviet army, who spent the forty-one years of his self-imposed exile in a pigsty

• ALT1: ... that Athol Fugard's play A Place with the Pigs used a Soviet deserter hiding in a pigsty to represent alcoholism and liberal Afrikaners during apartheid?

• Source: Coveney, Michael (2025-03-09). "Athol Fugard obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-02-23. A Place with the Pigs (1988), directed by Fugard at the National, with Jim Broadbent as a Soviet army deserter and Linda Bassett as his scavenging wife, was a metaphorical reflection, he said, on his protracted battle with alcoholism.

• Colleran, Jeanne (March 1990). "A Place with the Pigs: Athol Fugard's Afrikaner Parable". Modern Drama. 33 (1): 82–92. doi:10.1353/mdr.1990.0012. ISSN 1712-5286. Obviously, Fugard's parable lends itself to readings not bound by historical circumstance. It offers insights into the dynamics of self-victimization, whatever the causes may be. But as a parable of one segment of South African society—the white South African who is committed both to dismantling apartheid and to remaining in his homeland—it adds a new voice, an authentic one, to those clamoring to decide the future of South Africa

• Reviewed:

Created by Dizzycheekchewer (talk). Number of QPQs required: 0. Nominator has fewer than 5 past nominations.

Dizzycheekchewer (talk) 21:19, 23 February 2026 (UTC).

• Article is neutral, suitably referenced, free from copyvio (Earwig is showing less than 5%), and meets the length and newness criteria—created on the same day as this nomination. The hooks are succinct, neutral, interesting, and verifiable—both are interesting, but ALT0 is definitely my pick. QPQ is not required. This is good to go! A fascinating topic—I'd love to see it expanded a little more for a potential GAN in the future. – Rhain ☔ (he/him) 02:38, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

'Inhabiting'

'The next day, Pavel hears the voice of an unnamed commissar and inhabits him in a dialogue.'

The word 'to inhabit' is used here in a way that I am neither familiar with nor find in the Wiktionary entry. How do you 'inhabit' a person? Anonymous44 (talk) 17:06, 15 March 2026 (UTC)

@Anonymous44 I changed the phrasing to be a little less confusing. I also don't see any definitions specifically in this line of meaning, but it's kind of like the commissar possessing him (though not so extreme).

The commissar's voice briefly makes a home (ie inhabits) in Pavel. Taken literally, it's him embodying the commissar and then the play proceeds with Pavel talking to himself with two perspectives (like Smeagol/Gollum in LOTR, for example). Dizzycheekchewer (talk) 23:56, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I see. I actually imagined it would be something like this because of the context, but it was hard to be sure, because I didn't remember this as a standard expression and it didn't seem to make logical sense either - to convey such a meaning, it would have been more logical to say that the commissar inhabits Pavel and not vice versa.--Anonymous44 (talk) 08:44, 19 March 2026 (UTC)

Right, I see now that you've changed it along these lines, too - the voice inhabits Pavel.--Anonymous44 (talk) 08:45, 19 March 2026 (UTC)