BOESMAN AND LENA

Daisy Spencer again displays her talent for directing in Fugard classic. (Review by Janet Whelan)

Boesman and Lena is Athol Fugard’s classic story of two coloured people trapped in a struggle for freedom and dignity set during apartheid South Africa. The play premiered in Grahamstown at the Rhodes University Little Theatre in 1969, with Fugard himself in the role of Boesman and Yvonne Bryceland as Lena, to a standing ovation and eight curtain calls.

Fugard described an encounter he had that influenced the creation of Boesman and Lena : on a hot August day in 1965, Fugard and two friends were driving along a rural road when they saw an old woman trudging along with all her worldly possessions tied up in a bundle on her head. They stopped and offered her a ride. She cried at their unexpected kindness, and during the fifteen-mile trip to a farm up the road, she told them about the death of her husband three days earlier and her nine missing children. If Fugard and his companions hadn’t stopped to offer her a ride, she would have followed her plan to sleep in a stormwater drain that night and continue her long journey the next day.

Directed by Daisy Spencer and starring Rory Booth and Caitlin Kilburn in the title roles, with Mthokozisi Zulu as “Outa”, this production takes place in the course of a single evening, following Boesman and Lena’s story as they journey across the mudflats of the Swartkops River near Port Elizabeth, carrying all their belongings, as they have been uprooted from their home which has been bulldozed by the white authorities in order to drive them and other blacks and coloureds in the segregated settlement further away from their white neighbours.

The play opens to an empty stage with black backdrops when Boesman first enters carrying his worldly possessions, followed soon after by Lena. Rory Booth is well known in Durban theatre circles and gives a credible performance as the abrasive, bullying Boesman. Caitlin Kilburn was last seen at the Catalina Theatre playing the fiery Aldonza in The Man of La Mancha. Although appearing a little young in the part of Lena, she gives an excellent performance maintaining the accent throughout. However, the young Mthokozisi Zulu plays the old black man “Outa” to perfection, so much so that when he springs to his feet for the curtain call, one is surprised.

Daisy Spencer is well known to theatre audiences and has been associated with many productions as a performer, choreographer and director. She says “being a coloured performing artist myself, I have always had a special interest in stories that speak about our race”. In Boesman and Lena she once again displays her talent for directing.

A small criticism would be the modern plastic water bottles and the shiny kettle. One would have thought that a beaten up old kettle could have been found and something more in keeping with the time for carrying water.

Boesman and Lena runs until March 16. Performances are: School groups 11h00 weekdays with public performances Fridays and Saturdays at 20h00 (Sundays at 18h00 two weekends only). Tickets for school groups R45 (one teacher free for every 10 scholars); for public performances R75 (R60 for pensioners). Booking is through www.strictlytickets.co.za or 031 305 6889.

The Catalina Theatre is still functioning thanks to support from Rainbow Chicken Farms, the Ethekwini Municipality and the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.