The Road to Mecca in Ohio, USA
Dayton Theatre Guild in Ohio
present The Road to Mecca from 3- 19 Dec 2021. The director is
Scott Madden.
"Helen Martins is a South African woman living in a
Christian community. She realizes she is getting older, and her neighbors
expect her to move into a nursing home. Pastor Byleveld comes to her house
to collect the papers approving her move, but Helen refuses to sign. Her
friend, Elsa comes to visit from Cape Town, hoping to help settle the
situation, and Helen’s neighbors are concerned about the odd sculptures
Helen is creating in her yard."
More details are on the Dayton website click
here.
My Children! My Africa! in USA
Washington
State Guild present My Children! My Africa! from 11 Nov- 15 Dec 2021.
The director is Gerrad Alex Taylor.
"The great South African
playwright’s meditation on education and its role in the struggle for
justice, along with its sad limits in a culture of oppression and bigotry.
In an Eastern Cape Karoo town in South Africa in 1984, devoted teacher Mr.
M seeks to provide a future for his prize pupil Thami by forming a debate
team with a bright student from the local white school, Isabel. But Mr.
M’s hopes for Thami are challenged by their generational divide and the
political violence brewing outside the classroom."
Details are on the
Washington State Guild website click
here.
The Road to Mecca in NC, USA
Burning Coal Theatre Company are
performing The Road to Mecca from 2- 19 Dec 2021. The director is
Jerome Davis. It is at their
theatre in Raleigh, North Carolina. More details when available.
Blood Knot in
South Africa
Craig Palm
and Mncedisi Shabangu perform Blood Knot in The Market Theatre, South
Africa. It is on from 15 Oct 2021. The director is James Ngcobo.
Craig
Palm says “Blood Knot is about the bond between two brothers. It is about
being frustrated by how their environment limits their dreams… You know
why I love this character [Morris]; it was played by white people and I am
the first [black] person to play it. Morris is self-taught and reads a
lot. He has travelled and seen places more than his brother. He decides to
leave his brother for 10 years and explore the world. He returns later to
connect with his brother. He wants to involve his brother and show him
that he can aspire to have dreams. Because he wants this to happen and he
is saving every cent.”
The quotes are from
interview by Patience Bambalele, 1 Oct 2021 from
Sowetan live click
here.
Update:
Craig Palm has pulled out citing health reasons. He is
replaced by Francois Jacobs.
Blood Knot in Cape Town, South Africa
Market
Theatre's production of Blood Knot comes to the Baxter in Cape Town.
It runs from 11- 28 May 2022.
"Two brothers navigate the intricacies
of being stuck in a place that offers them nothing but it's squalor and
the poverty they are confronted with every single moment. They are forced
to dream. The theme of hope runs through this very delicate conversation
with South Africa’s present-day reality"..
Details are on the Baxter website
here.
Fugard awarded honorary degree
The Faculty of Humanities at the
University of Pretoria has conferred the honorary doctorate (honoris
causa) in Literature on Fugard. The virtual ceremony took place on
30 April 2021.
“The Department of English extends its
warmest congratulations to Athol Fugard on being awarded an honorary
degree by the University of Pretoria,” said Prof David Medalie and Prof
Molly Brown, Head of Department. “He is one of the world’s greatest living
dramatists and has been a powerful chronicler, for more than six decades,
of a wide range of South African experiences.”
“Fugard’s
contribution is of inestimable importance to South African drama,
literature and cultural life, and indeed to that of the entire
English-speaking world,” added Prof Vasu Reddy, Dean of the Faculty of
Humanities. “His writing shows the influence of global philosophical
traditions such as existentialism, but his penetrating explorations of
wider issues of identity and meaning are always firmly rooted in the
local. There is little doubt that Fugard’s standing is not just local, but
global. Indeed, he stands tall among the greatest playwrights of the 20th
century.”
More details are
here.
Statements After An Arrest Under
the Immorality Act in London
The Orange Tree Theatre present
Statements
from 28 Aug- 2 Oct 2021.
It will also be streamed
on 23, 24 Sept 2021. The cast are Scarlett Brookes (Frieda Joubert), Richard Sutton (Detective
Sergeant du Preez) and Shaq Taylor (Errol Philander) and the director is
Diane Page.
More details are on the Orange Tree Theatre website
here.
Blood Knot in
South Africa
Francois Jacobs
and Mncedisi Shabangu perform Blood Knot in The Market Theatre, South
Africa. It is on from 15 Oct to 14 Nov 2021. The director is James Ngcobo.
Boesman
and Lena at the Lincoln Centre, New York
The 2000 version of the Boesman
and Lena film is on at the Lincoln Centre, NY on 6 Dec 2021.
Details
are on the Lincoln Centre website click
here.
A Place with the Pigs in Wisconsin, USA
The College
of Arts and Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
present A Place with the Pigs from 5-9 Oct 2021. It is at the
Barnett Theatre in the Greenhill Center of the Arts.
"Based on an absurd but true story and
directed by Bruce Cohen, this poignant and sometimes hilarious tale is
about a Russian soldier who deserted during World War II and spent ten
years hiding in his pigsty. As the play begins, Pavel Ivanovitch is
preparing to rejoin the world and throw himself on the mercy of his
countrymen… Will Pavel Ivanovitch ever be able to leave the pigsty, or is
it his only safe haven?".
Nongogo in South Africa
Nongogo is
on at The Playhouse Company, Kwa-Zulu Nataal from 28 Aug- 4 Sept 2021.
"Directed
by the legendary Bheki Mkhwane, Nongogo... will hit with shows running...
Set in a shebeen outside of Johannesburg in the 1950s, the play focuses on
the life of a shebeen queen who was once a prostitute. The production
highlights some of the most thought-provoking topics about women".
More details
are on The Playhouse Company website
here.
Fugard Theatre closes permanently
The Fugard Theatre has been closed
for month because of the pandemic, but sadly is now closing permanently.
The theatre website states
"Dear
Friends of The Fugard Theatre, After a year of Covid closure it is
with great regret and sadness that I have to confirm that The Fugard
Theatre will close permanently with immediate effect. We are not
persuaded that it will be Covid safe or financially viable to reopen as a
theatre in the foreseeable future."
Ismail Mahomed writes
"One of the most poignant lines ever to
have been spoken on the stages of the theatre was by Athol Fugard. At its
opening he said:
We are sitting on the laps
of ghosts.
It was a fairly eerie thought but it meant more than
just sitting on the laps of the ghosts of the people who lived in District
Six. We were sitting on the laps of Barney Simon, Ramaloa Makhene,
Doris Sihula, Matsemela Manaka, Mavis Taylor, Lucille Gillwald and all
those deceased artists who had used their creative voices to fight
apartheid and censorship through theatre; and whose spirit had come to
rejoice in the birth of a new post-apartheid mainstream, independent,
free-thinking theatre." (The Conversation,18 Mar 2021,
here).
Sad news.
Victory conversation on Zoom
The Provincetown Theater and
Capital Classics Theatre Company present a Zoom conversation with
performance excerpts from Athol Fugard's one-act play, Victory on 27 Feb
2021. This is streamed on Zoom and is free-of-charge.
Moderated by directors Jan Mason and
Geoff Sheehan, the audience will discuss the play’s themes and their
relevance and resemblance to our world today in between excerpts from the
play as performed by artists from the Capital Classics Theatre Company.
Click
here for details.