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Fugard is back at the Fountain
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Photo: Ed Krieger
Athol Fugard doesn’t typically attend revivals of his own plays. When you consider the number of “Master Harolds…” “Bloodknots” and “A Lesson from Aloes” that must be staged annually, there is hardly time.
Nine years ago, however, word of mouth brought him through the doors of the Fountain Theatre to see a Stephen Sachs staging of his 1984 play “The Road to Mecca.”
Both men are glad he did.
“He loved what he saw, and he and I struck up a friendship, and we stayed in contact,” recalls Sachs. “When he was going into a production of ‘Sorrows and Rejoicings’ at the Taper, I told him if he was ever looking for a small, safe haven away from a larger theater institution to create a new play, I offered him the Fountain as a safe haven to create new works.”
“One day he sent me an e-mail with an attachment file. It said, ‘Attached is my new play. I want you to do it.’”
That play was “Exits and Entrances” which became a long running hit at the Fountain and later toured to Santa Barbara. Sachs followed that production up with the American premiere of Fugard’s “Victory” in 2007.
Fugard’s newest work, “Coming Home,” will have its West Coast premiere at the Fountain beginning this weekend. Given the Fountain’s unofficial status as Fugard’s small space home away from home (the playwright divides his time between San Diego and the Karoo region of his native South Africa), the play’s title seems fitting.
“Coming Home” is a kind of sequel to Fugard’s “Valley Song.” (1996). In the earlier play, Veronica Jonkers ultimately left her grandfather’s farm for Cape Town to pursue a career as a singer. In “Coming Home,” she returns, following his death, to start a new life with her young son.
“Things have not worked out quite the way she planned,” says Sachs. “She’s not a star, but she’s a mother, and she returns to the same shack she grew up in., and she meets up with a man who has been waiting for her all this time. The play is about their struggle to survive together.”
Fugard, as both his plays and interviews indicate, is a hopeful man who has long chronicled the high points and pitfalls of his country through the lives of its ordinary citizens. Blacks and whites share the stage in Fugard plays recalling the past and looking to an uncertain future.
An actor from “Exits and Entrances” once asked the playwright about having the courage to write during a time in history when his plays could have gotten him arrested.
“Athol said, ‘I was terrified every day and scared all the time,’” says Sachs. “They would show up for rehearsals in the early years in people’s homes and find out who had been arrested and carted off not to be seen again. His production of ‘Bloodknot’ was the first time in the history of that country that a white man and a black man appeared on stage together.”
“Coming Home,” like “Valley Song” and many of the playwright’s recent works, is set post Apartheid. This does not necessarily mean that everything is roses and violets.
“Even in ‘Victory,’ the last play of his we produced, there’s an old man who is confused and befuddled by the new South Africa which has broken into his home in the guise of a girl he raised,” says Sachs. “There is a sense of the world changing, but South Africa is not changing, and I know that pains and grieves (Fugard) tremendously.”
“There was such a hope and such promise for the country when Nelson Mandela was released and democracy put in place. South Africa was the light of the world, the light of hope for so many people around the world,” the director continues. “I think a lot of people agree that the country is in disarray and is struggling to fulfill its promise.”
Fugard is 77. Where once he regularly acted in and directed his plays, he now concentrates exclusively on writing. Sachs says Fugard makes himself available to the cast, but isn’t around much for rehearsals. Sachs expects him to see the performance, and participate in a post show talk back, but he won’t attend the hoopla of opening night.
The playwright has had past long term relationships with regional theaters such as the Mark Taper Forum, the Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut (where “Coming Home” had its world premiere in January) and the La Jolla Playhouse.
Whether he gets a play first or third, Sachs is just pleased to be on the other end of Fugard’s e-mail.
“He has sent me another play,” the director says. “I’ll talk about it anon.”
“Coming Home” plays 8 p.m. Thur.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun.; through Aug. 29. $23-$28. (323) 663-1525 or www.FountainTheatre.com
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