Photo Flash: Mosaic Theater Co Launches South Africa: Then & Now Repertory with BLOOD KNOT

Mosaic Theater Company of DC presents South Africa: Then & Now, a dynamic spring repertory that takes audience members back to the depths of Apartheid, before moving forward to the ongoing search for truth and reconciliation in a wounded country. The repertory launches with Athol Fugard's seminal masterpiece, BLOOD KNOT (March 29-April 30, 2017)-an intimate parable about a brotherhood devastated by the constraints of Apartheid-under the direction of Studio Theatre Founding Artistic Director Joy Zinoman, making her Mosaic Theater Company debut.

Logan Vaughn returns to Mosaic for the second time this season to stage a companion South African drama, A HUMAN BEING DIED THAT NIGHT (April 6-30, 2017). Based on Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's acclaimed memoir, and adapted for the stage by Nicholas Wright, this play recounts Gobodo-Madikizela's interrogations of one of Apartheid's most notorious agents, Eugene de Kock, known by many as 'Prime Evil.'

The repertory has been designed to highlight the dialogue in and between these plays-one dark-skinned and one light-skinned brother in Blood Knot; one black psychologist and one white prisoner in A Human Being Died That Night. In the former, South Africa's most iconic playwright, the now 84-year-old Athol Fugard, tells a deeply personal story about the lacerating behavioral and psychological effects of Apartheid on a family. In the latter, the black South African psychologist Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela uses an equally personal story to frame universal questions about the limits of forgiveness and the search for truth, which have defined post-Apartheid reconstruction.

Noteworthy to Mosaic, these dramas represent two different eras in South Africa's struggle for justice, brought out by the intergenerational artistic dialogue between the repertory's two directors-Joy Zinoman, one of America's most acclaimed and influential artists; and Logan Vaughn, a rising force in American theater who returns for the second time this season, following her workshop direction of Stacey Rose and Alexis Spiegel's new play about race and identity, The Black Jew Thing.

"As powerful and intimate as each of these chamber plays are," notes Mosaic Theater Founding Artistic Director, Ari Roth, "equally thrilling for us will be the epic sweep of history that staging them both together will allow us to behold. The South African transformation-from Apartheid state to still fledgling, new democracy-is one of the most inspiring advents of the last century, yet not without its complexities. We're inviting audiences to immerse themselves in the drama of South Africa and to experience life within the belly of oppression at a granular level, in intimate theatrical detail."

Roth continues, "Joy Zinoman is a precision genius who believes that truth lies within that detail; in the moment to moment; in the intimacy of behavior sharply observed. And she's chosen two master actors-one she's worked with for decades, and one she's searched the country to find-to bring the most truthful illustration of how people live together under the yoke of oppression. What strategies; what games; what personas do they adopt to resist; to exist; to not succumb? Logan Vaughn is an essentialist focusing on the power of a dramatic confrontation between a white male torturer and a black female psychologist. What unites them and keeps them talking to each other over a five-year period? These two radically different dramas help us appreciate how thoroughly South Africa has transformed over the course of a generation."

ABOUT BLOOD KNOT

Blood Knot is helmed by two superstar performers. Nathan Hinton plays the dark-skinned Zachariah, an illiterate laborer who has spent much of his life in the shadow of his light-skinned and more intellectual brother, Morris, played by Tom Story. Morris uses his fair complexion to pass as white, a status that has awarded him countless privileges over Zachariah. But when Zachariah finds himself in love with a new pen pal-a white woman-and the possibilities she represents, the knotted tensions that lie beneath the surface of their brotherhood threaten to tear the two apart.

"I cannot wait to begin rehearsals for this great and moving play that we need now more than ever," shares Blood Knot director Joy Zinoman. "A play about our interdependence, about the love, the Blood Knot between brothers, about the brutal personal effects of state sponsored racism. Two great actors, Tom Story and Nate Hinton, join me in the rehearsal room to explore a piece of great, classic writing-the universal metaphor of Cain and Abel beyond the political or narrowly topical. Brothers, Mother Love, role- playing, violence, escaping our destiny. Athol Fugard is a giant. Having directed or produced The Road to Mecca (the sister play to this, with Holly Twyford and Tana Hicken), Master Harold and the Boys, My Children, My Africa and more, I was excited to be asked by Ari and Serge to be part of this South African Rep."

Blood Knot premiered in 1961 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with Fugard himself performing as Morris, alongside acclaimed South African actor Zakes Mokae as Zachariah. The premiere production closed the day after it opened, after just a single performance, in part because it was then illegal for a racially mixed company to perform on the same stage. The American premiere opened Off-Broadway at the Cricket Theatre three years later, in 1964, starring James Earl Jones as Zachariah, and J.D. Cannon as Morris. In 1985, nearly 24 years after the premiere, a trimmed version of the play premiered on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre, with Fugard and Mokae reprising the roles they had originated in 1961.

The last professional production of Blood Knot to take place in Washington, DC was in 2002, at the African Continuum Theatre Company. It was staged by Mosaic Theater Resident Director Jennifer L. Nelson, and performed by DC favorites Jefferson A. Russell as Zachariah, and Michael Glenn as Morris.

TICKETS: Tickets are $40-$60, plus applicable fees. For information on savings programs such as student discounts, neighborhood nights, military and first responder discounts, and others, visit mosaictheater.org/tickets. Tickets may be purchased online at mosaictheater.org, or by phone at 202-399- 7993 ext. 2, or in person at the Atlas Performing Arts Center Box Office at 1333 H Street NE, Washington, DC 20002.

Atlas Performing Arts Center Box Office: 202-399-7993 ext. 2

Photo Credit: Stan Barouh

Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Nathan Hinton as Zachariah and Anika Harden as Woman
Nathan Hinton as Zachariah and Tom Story
Nathan Hinton as Zachariah and Tom Story
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah
Tom Story as Morris and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah