Athol Fugard, the great South African playwright and anti-apartheid crusader, used to be seen regularly on St. Louis stages. He's been away for a while, driven by nothing more than coincidence, but is back at the Mustard Seed Theatre. A solid production of his 20-year-old "Playland," with passionate performances by Erik Kilpatrick and Charlie Barron, opened at the Fontbonne University Theatre last night. It runs through Feb. 12.
Unfortunately, it's not one of Fugard's best. It's New Year's Eve, 1989, with apartheid crumbling and Nelson Mandela about to be released from prison. A sad, tawdry amusement park has set up temporary quarters, and Courtney Sanazaro's set depicts it well. Kilpatrick, as Martinus Zoelue, black handyman and watchman, is puttering in his workshop. Barron, as Gideon Le Roux, is a white veteran of the 13-year border war between South Africa and the rebels of SWAPO, who represented radical elements in South West Africa and who succeeded in gaining independence in 1990 for the country now known as Namibia. He's a man in severe
pain, obviously suffering from war-related PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). But Barron, using an unfamiliar (to the audience) accent and often speaking too rapidly, is difficult to understand through most of the first act.
Missing much of the first act is not a great loss. Fugard fills it with exposition, some of it fascinating, more of it unnecessary. And Act II, with Barron slowing a little and the accent becoming more familiar, provides gripping entertainment as Barron battles his conscience and his racist past while Kirkpatrick struggles with his personal problems and the fact that he has committed a crime of passion. Two heavyweights go toe to toe in the most brutal battle since the Rumble in the Jungle pitted Muhammad Ali against George Foreman.
Insults fly. Manhood is challenged. Kirkpatrick does not understand why Barron is so desperate to instigate combat. Barron doesn't either, but he is expiating sins that were committed in battle. Lots of parables play out.
Under the perceptive direction of Deanna Jent, the men battle, mostly verbally, but Jent and the actors are passionate, and their heat envelops the theater. As in life, there may be a handshake at the end, but the struggle continues. Neither man completely understands either himself or his opponent. Nor does the audience. Kirkpatrick is brilliant throughout, Barron bats .500, which would lead any major league, any year. Bess Moynihan's lights and Jane Sullivan's costumes fit right in and Meg Brinkley found a couple of props that perfectly illustrate the area of a carnival that the audience doesn't see. And speaking of not seeing, Richard Lewis provides the disembodied voice of the carnival's barker and public address announcer, known as "Barking Barney."
Playland, a production of the Mustard Seed Theatre, opened last night at the Fontbonne University Theatre, to run through Feb. 12
— Joe