Pycho-sexual drama at Baxter before international tour

Performance times for The Girl in the Yellow Dress are at 6pm from 29 June to 10 July as well as on 15 and 19 July, giving audiences ample opportunity to catch all the football action. However, from 12 to 22 July the starting time will be at 8.15pm and the two matinees on 21 and 22 July are at 2pm.

Malcolm Purkey, artistic director of the Market Theatre and well known for his international hit Sophiatown, directs UK actress Marianne Oldham in the role of Celia and South African actor Nat Ramabulana as Pierre, in this dark, witty and sexually charged psychological drama.

International collaboration

This new South African production is a collaboration between the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and two of the UK's most prestigious theatres. Following its run at the Baxter the play transfers to the Traverse Theatre during the Edinburgh Festival for four weeks, after which it moves to the Live Theatre in Newcastle and the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow, and then travels to the Stadsteater in Stockholm, Sweden. After this nearly five-month tour the production returns home to the Market Theatre from 17 October to 14 November.

Originally inspired by Ovid's story Echo and Narcissus and psychoanalytic writings on narcissism, The Girl in the Yellow Dress is set in contemporary Paris and deals with the exchanges between Celia, a beautiful English teacher in her late-20s, and Pierre, her younger French-Congolese pupil.

Humour, rage and longing

Brimming with humour, rage and longing, the play provides both a minute exploration of an increasingly hazardous romantic entanglement and an insight into some of the tensions between the "first" and "third" worlds. Part psychological thriller and part state-of-the-nation analysis, it tackles issues such as language, power, identity, sex, past trauma, class, exile and refugees - tensions that run through South African society and beyond.

"The Girl in the Yellow Dress is basically about two people who lie their way to the truth," explained playwright Craig Higginson. "It is very much about the fictions we create about ourselves and each other. Do those fictions reduce us into something we are not or release our potential for growth into something new? How do we have genuinely symmetrical relationships, in which we are able to be both free and true to ourselves and each other?"

British designer Gary McCann is responsible for the set and costumes, lighting design is by Nomvula Molepo and Ben Blanpain is the accent coach.

National Arts Festival

The Girl in the Yellow Dress runs at the National Arts Festival from 21 to 23 June before transferring to Flipside at the Baxter for three weeks from 29 June to 22 July. Booking is through Computicket on +27 (0)83 915 8000, online at www.computicket.co.za or at any Shoprite Checkers outlet.

For discounted block, corporate or school bookings, charities or fundraisers contact Sharon on +27 (0)21 680 3962 or Carmen on +27 (0)21 680 3993 during office hours. Ticket prices range from R70 for the Baxter Monday special offer, which includes a light meal and show, to R130 at weekends.