Pacific Theatre Presents PLAYLAND, 11/5-27

New Year's Eve, 1989, South Africa.  Mere weeks before the release of Nelson Mandela and the first steps towards apartheid reform, South Africa's State of Emergency is reaching its breaking point.  It's at this moment that a black security guard and a white soldier meet at a traveling amusement park.  The two become an instant microcosm for their nation's turmoil as they battle over the spaces between guilt, damnation, and reconciliation in this turbulent drama.  Will they find the harmony their country so desperately needs?

Pacific Theatre presents Athol Fugard's Playland.  A powerful exploration of guilt and reconciliation under apartheid in South Africa.  Playing November 5-27, Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm with 2pm matinee on Saturday.  At Pacific Theatre, 1440 W 12th Ave.  Pay-what-you-can preview November 4.  Artist talkback Friday, November 12th.  For tickets ($16.50-29.50 HST not incl.) call 604.731.5518 or visit pacifictheatre.org

Playwright Athol Fugard is known for writing about his home country of South Africa, seeking reconciliation and healing through basic theatrical essentials: a couple of actors, a barren setting, and a single confrontation.  On the inspiration of Playland, Fugard credits a photo from the border war that depicts two white soldiers dropping the body of a black man into a mass grave.  He imagined the addition of a sorrowful mother to the image, and the play was born.

Director Anthony F. Ingram was drawn to Playland by Fugard's optimism: "Athol Fugard, who somehow manages to distill what to me is such a massively overwhelming chasm between two peoples, into two men who are guilty of fighting on opposite sides of the race war - both with blood on their hands and hatred in their hearts.  He puts them face to face and we get to watch them spar, dance, bleed, weep - and somehow, and I'm still trying to figure out how, Fugard imparts this hope."

Despite our separation from the conflict in South Africa, Canada is no stranger to the legal segregation that apartheid brought to horrifying levels.  With a history that includes Japanese internment camps, First Nations reserves and residential schools, and ever-changing immigration laws, Canadians have all been a part of some form of legal segregation, bringing a frightening relevance to this story.

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