Press: Athol Fugard's acclaimed play 'The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek' for the Fugar

Eric Abraham presents a Fugard Theatre production of Athol Fugard’s The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek.

Internationally acclaimed and multiple award-winning playwright Athol Fugard, who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2011, returns to the Fugard Theatre with his acclaimed new play, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, a story inspired by the life of a farm worker called Nukain Mabuza, a self-taught artist living in segregated pre-liberation South Africa. The play enjoyed a highly acclaimed debut season in New York in 2015, which was extended several times.

Ageing Nukain has spent his life transforming the rocks on a koppie at Revolver Creek into a vibrant garden of painted flowers. Aided by his young companion Bokkie, we now find Nukain confronting his last challenge — to paint the huge boulder at the summit. Yet before long, the landowner’s wife, Elmarie Kleynhans arrives and makes demands about the painting, laying bare the profound rifts of a country hurtling towards the end of apartheid. When Bokkie – now known as Jonathan Sejake – returns years later, it is to confront the legacy on Revolver Creek left to him as a young man trying to find his place in the new South Africa.

In his work, Fugard continues to explore the limits of human experience against the backdrop of the changing South African political reality. The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek is his latest effort to confront not only the past, but also the present.

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek features an all South Africa cast of highly acclaimed Anna-Mart van der Merwe (Begeerte, Binnelanders) who makes her Fugard Theatre debut, Tshamano Sebe (The Fugard Theatre’s Master Harold and the Boys) and Sne Dladla (The Fugard Theatre’s Orpheus in Africa, District Six – Kanala) who recently won the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his various roles in David Kramer's Orpheus in Africa . The production will be co-directed by Athol Fugard and Paula Fourie. The creative team includes critically acclaimed set designer Saul Radomsky (The Fugard Theatre’s The Shadow of the Hummingbird, District Six – Kanala, Orpheus in Africa), costume designer Birrie Le Roux (The Fugard Theatre’s West Side Story, The Blue Iris, Orpheus in Africa), lighting designer Mannie Manim, (The Fugard Theatre’s The Shadow of the Hummingbird, The Blue Iris) and sound design by Charl-Johan Lingenfelder (The Fugard Theatre’s West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Show, Orpheus in Africa).

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek runs at the Fugard Studio Theatre from 23 August 2016 for a limited season only that must close on 24 September 2016. Tickets ranging from R140 to R180 are available through the Fugard Theatre box office on 021 461 4554 or Computicket and 08619158000. The usual excellent discounts are available to all registered Friends of the Fugard when booking through the Theatre’s box office.