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Innovative works of live performance for multicultural audiences.
Shaping Ideas into theatrical events.
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Innovative works of live performance for multicultural audiences. Shaping Ideas into theatrical events.
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November 8, 2006
Winona Daily News By Karl Knutson
It is hard to wait for change. That’s one of the themes in Athol Fugard’s “My Children! My Africa!” performed by Theatre du Mississippi Nov. 3-12 at the Historic Masonic Theatre in Winona.
The three-person play, directed by Maggy Jacqmin, is set in South Africa in 1984. Apartheid is the rule of the land. Mr. M, played by Minneapolis playwright Carlyle Brown, sees the National English Literature Quiz as an opportunity for change. Thami, played by Guthrie Theater graduate Namir Smallwood, is one of his brightest students at a poor black school. After a competition between the school and a posh white school, Mr. M pairs Thami and Isabel, played by fellow Guthrie graduate Vanessa Caye Wasche.
Brown recently traveled to Cape Town, South Africa. He marveled at the city and its mix of people.
“To be in Cape Town, it’s hard to believe apartheid ever existed,” Brown said.
It is a Cape Town that Brown says his character would be surprised to see.
“I can’t imagine that he could imagine what I saw,” Brown said.
Wasche had performed in the play three years ago. She describes her character as spunky and ambitious but not always able to see the big picture. “Most of the play, Mr. M’s trying to convince her of what’s going on”, Wasche said. “She realizes the extent and the gravity of the situation at the end of the play.”
Smallwood compares Mr. M to Martin Luther King Jr. and his own character to the Black Panthers.
“He wants freedom now,” Smallwood said. “That’s all he cares about.”
The play deals with racism but also with generational differences.
“You’re young. You think you know what’s right but you don’t. There’s always someone a little older and a little wiser than you,” Smallwood said.
One of the things that attracted Brown to the role was the opportunity to see a character from a different angle.
“It’s very interesting as a playwright to be inside a play,” Brown said.
Fugard’s work was often censored and kept underground. Today his works are regularly produced.
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