The Road to Mecca | |
---|---|
Written by | Athol Fugard |
Characters | Elsa Barlow Miss Helen Rev. Marius Byleveld |
Date premiered | 1984 |
Place premiered | South Africa |
Original language | English |
The Road to Mecca is a play by South African playwright Athol Fugard. It was inspired by the story of Helen Martins, who lived in Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa and created The Owl House, which is now a National heritage site.
Miss Helen, a senior South African widow, has been working on an overgrown sculpture garden, which is a dream trip to "Mecca". Pastor Marius urges Helen to move to a senior home. However, Elsa, a Cape Town schoolteacher, arrives to encourage Helen in her art.
The Road to Mecca was presented at the Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, Connecticut, in May 1984. Directed by Fugard, the cast starred Carmen Mathews (Helen), Marianne Owen (Elsa), and Tom Aldredge (Marius). [1]
The play was performed at the National Theatre Littleton Theatre in London in February to July 1985. [2] [3] It was then presented at the Spoleto Festival USA in May 1987, starring Athol Fugard as the Rev. Marius Byleveld, Charlotte Cornwell as Elsa Barlow, and Yvonne Bryceland as Miss Helen. Cornwell and Bryceland were also in the National Theatre production. [4]
Fugard had written the part of Helen for Yvonne Bryceland. When he and the Lincoln Center Theater Company were in talks in 1985 to have the play produced there, Bryceland was not permitted to perform the role in the United States by Actors Equity. The issue began in early 1984, when Fugard and Lloyd Richards, the artistic director of the Yale Repertory Theater, asked for permission for her to perform in the Yale Rep production; the request was denied. [5] She was subsequently allowed to perform at the Spoletto Festival. [6] The union finally permitted Bryceland to perform in the United States. [7]
The play premiered Off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre on 12 April 1988 and closed on 11 September 1988 after 172 performances. Directed by Fugard, he also starred as Marius Byleveld; the cast featured Yvonne Bryceland as Miss Helen and Amy Irving as Elsa Barlow. John Lee Beatty was the Set Designer, Susan Hilferty, Costume Designer and Dennis Parichy, Lighting Designer. [8] The play won the 1988 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and the 1987-1988 Obie Awards for Outstanding Performances, Yvonne Bryceland. [8]
The Road to Mecca premiered on Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre on 16 December 2011 (in previews) and closed on 4 March 2012. The cast starred Rosemary Harris (Miss Helen), Jim Dale (Pastor Marius Byleveld) and Carla Gugino (Elsa), directed by Gordon Edelstein. [9] [10]
The 1991 film adaptation of The Road to Mecca, written by Peter Goldsmid, who also co-directed it with Fugard, starred Fugard as the Rev. Marius Byleveld, Kathy Bates as Elsa Barlow, and Yvonne Bryceland as Miss Helen. [11]
"Master Harold"...and the boys is a play by Athol Fugard. Set in 1950, it was first produced at the Yale Repertory Theatre in March 1982 and made its premiere on Broadway on 4 May at the Lyceum Theatre, where it ran for 344 performances. The play takes place in South Africa during apartheid era, and depicts how institutionalized racism, bigotry or hatred can become absorbed by those who live under it. It is said to be a semi-autobiographical play, as Athol Fugard's birth name was Harold and his boyhood was very similar to Hally's, including his father being disabled, and his mother running a tea shop to support the family. His relationship with his family's servants was similar to Hally's as he sometimes considered them his friends, but other times treated them like subservient help, insisting that he be called "Master Harold", and once spitting in the face of one he had been close to. Additionally the play was remade for a suitable audience in 2005.
Zakes Makgona Mokae was a South African stage and screen actor. He was well-known for his work with playwright Athol Fugard, notably in The Blood Knot and "Master Harold"...and the Boys, the latter earning him a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play.
Amy Irving is an American retired actress and singer, who worked in film, stage, and television. Her accolades include an Obie Award, and nominations for two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award.
Athol Fugard OIS HonFRSL is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. Some of these have also been adapted for film.
Bonisile John Kani,, is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in The Lion King (2019) and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix films Murder Mystery (2019) and Murder Mystery 2 (2023).
The Market Theatre, based in the downtown bohemian suburb of Newtown in Johannesburg, South Africa, was opened in 1976, operating as an independent, anti-racist theatre during the country's apartheid regime. It was named after a fruit and vegetable market that was previously located there. It was also known as the Old Indian Market or the Newtown Market, which closed after 60 years. The Market Theatre was renamed John Kani Theatre in 2014 after the renowned South African stage actor John Kani.
Yvonne Bryceland was a South African stage actress. Some of her best-known work was in the plays of Athol Fugard.
Lucille Lortel was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."
The Owl House is a museum in Nieu-Bethesda, Eastern Cape, South Africa. The owner, Helen Martins, turned her house and the area around it into a visionary environment, elaborately decorated with ground glass and containing more than 300 concrete sculptures including owls, camels, peacocks, pyramids, and people. She inherited the house from her parents and began its transformation after they died.
Blood Knot is an early play by South African playwright, actor, and director Athol Fugard. Its single-performance premier was in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with the playwright and Zakes Mokae playing the brothers Morris and Zachariah.
Lynne Meadow is an American theatre producer, director and a teacher. She has been the artistic director of the Manhattan Theatre Club since 1972.
Stephen Sachs is an American stage director and playwright. He is the co-artistic director of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 1990.
Paul Slabolepszy, or Paul "Slab", is a South African actor and playwright.
Boesman and Lena is a small-cast play by South African playwright Athol Fugard, set in the Swartkops mudflats outside of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape. It features a "Coloured" man and woman walking from one shanty town to another, and explores the effect of apartheid on a few individuals.
Dennis Parichy is an American lighting designer. He won the 1980 Drama Desk Award for Talley's Folly and the Obie Award in 1981.
Susan Hilferty is an American costume designer for theatre, opera, and film.
The Space Theatre was a fringe theatre in Cape Town, South Africa which was active in the 1970s. It re-opened in late 2008.
The Road to Mecca is a 1991 South African drama film starring Kathy Bates. It is based on Athol Fugard's play of the same name.
Brian Astbury was a South African photographer, theatre director, acting and writing teacher, and founder of The Space Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa.
Elize Cawood was a South African actress. Her most famous TV role is probably that of Pop in Verspeelde lente (1984) and on the silver screen opposite Marius Weyers and Peter Sepuma as the rich Afrikaner woman in Taxi to Soweto. She has also been seen in movies such as Die wonderwerker (2012) and Lien se lankstaanskoene (2012).