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EXITS AND ENTRANCES. By Athol Fugard. Directed by Stephen Sachs. The Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles. 17 October 2004.
NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH. By John Kani. Directed byjanice Honeyman. Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles. 20 October 2004.
After the fall of apartheid, playwright and actor Maishe Maponya remarked, echoed by many others, that one of the benefits and challenges to the theatre of South Africa is that it would now be evaluated on its artistic and aesthetic merits and not solely on its political content. However, even in postapartheid South African theatre, as in postapartheid South Africa, the past is not only still present, it is only now becoming fully known and understood. Politics remains, the key difference being that one may speak of this openly. Just as the theatre stood both witness to and in resistance against the horror of apartheid, it now serves to explore the relationship of the present to the past. Theatre may both document the past and point the way towards a future for the nation and for the theatre itself. Two productions in Los Angeles by two of the best known and most active theatrical witnesses to apartheid serendipitously offer distinct views of the South African past and the future of South African theatre.
Athol Fugard, arguably one of the best-known playwrights, let alone South Africans, in the world, has premiered his newest play at the Fountain Theatre. Like "Master Harold" . . . and the boys and The Captain's Tiger, the play is deeply autobiographical. Exits and Entrances flashes back to the beginning of Fugard's career, based on Fugard's own experiences of being cast in André Hugenet's production of Oedipus Rex. Hugenet, the "Olivier of South Africa," was known for his performances in classical productions, in particular Hamlet and Lear. However, he ended his career a financial and artistic failure, ultimately taking his own life in 1961.
The first half of the play, featuring characters identified as "André" (Morlan Higgins) and "The Playwright" (William Dennis Hurley), takes place in André's dressing room before and immediately after a performance of Oedipus. The Playwright admits his desire to write and André, after initially mocking him, reveals his youthful dream of an Afrikaaner theatre movement. In the second half, set five years...