STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY ACT at New Repertory Theatre

Theater Schmeater is proud to announce Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act by Athol Fugard, running Thursday- Friday, July 21st through August 12th. A devastating love story about an interracial couple hiding their love in South Africa during the heights of apartheid.

Errol Philander, a black African and local principal, has been sneaking into the library at night for secret assignations with a white librarian, Frieda Joubert. We see them one night as they share their hopes and fears until they are discovered by police; Their love is illegal under apartheid and they are arrested. Fugard writes the second half of the play as a surreal poem - unwrapping the psychological effects of institutional racism and exposing the characters innermost fears.

Statements… was written in 1972 by Athol Fugard based on pictures he saw in the newspaper of an interracial couple being arrested for “immorality.” He created a play that is specific in its setting but universal in its themes of love and racism. This play shows us how destructive hatred and ignorance can go.

Beautiful, poetic and tragic this show is a great continuation of Theater Schmeater’s season celebrating and telling the stories of outcasts.

Note: This performance has full frontal nudity, loving sexuality and fear of intimacy.

Authors

• Athol Fugard