Playland on tour

Published: 28 September 2019
Reporter: Peter Lathan

Playland
Faz Singhateh
Danny Solomon

In 1993, two years before the election which brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency of South Africa and ended Apartheid, and three years before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in an attempt to heal wounds and the divisions between black and white in the country, Athol Fugard, widely regarded as the greatest South African playwright, wrote Playland, a two-hander set in a run-down South African amusement park in 1989.

Martinus Zoeloe, a black night watchman and Gideon le Roux, a white former soldier, are struggling to come to terms with different violent pasts and explore their similarities and differences in a racially divided world.

Danny Solomon, co-founder of Elysium with Director Jake Murray, plays Gideon le Roux and Faz Singhateh is Martinus Zoeloe.

“I think that younger audiences will get this play because of what is happening politically now with Brexit,” said Singhateh. “We are divided about what to do now; there is a massive distrust on both camps. Older audiences will also remember this time in history of apartheid.

“What people will take from this play is that there is hope; Playland offers a tonic that peace is possible. I think that this is a play of reconciliation and of what we are capable of if we sit and listen to each other.

“Both characters talk ‘at’ each other, and it is only at the end when they begin to listen and say ‘what can we do?’ and walk off as friends.

“If we can take two characters – one black, one white – who have been isolated and feel angry, and they can come to some form of understanding, then there is hope for us all.”

Playland is a dark and beautiful play about our capacity to heal ourselves through acceptance – acceptance of ourselves and other people,” Murray adds.

“In a time when countries are redefining themselves along lines of race, religion and culture, Playland is a powerful reminder of what that path leads to, as well as a tribute to the power of the human spirit.”

Playland is a co-production with Queen’s Hall Arts, Hexham, where it opens on 16 & 17 October before touring to The Exchange, North Shields (18 October), City Theatre, Durham (24-26 October) and the Hullabaloo Space at Darlington Hippodrome (3 November). Tickets are available from the Elysium website.

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