Dame Janet Suzman to star in Solomon and Marion at the Baxter
South African-born actress and director Janet Suzman, recently made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for her services to drama, will be returning to the South African stage after 35 years to star in Solomon and Marion at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio from 26 October to 26 November, 2011.
Performances will be at 7pm nightly and will bring her together with author and director Lara Foot.
"I wrote this play with Janet in mind. The tone of her voice was in my head," explained Foot, who is the CEO and director of the Baxter Theatre Centre. "The play was inspired by a conversation I had with psychotherapist Tony Hamburger. It was motivated, in a sense, by a time in Cape Town when South Africa felt desperate, both politically and socially. There was the murder of actor Brett Goldin just three days before the company was due to leave for Stratford in the UK to perform in the Baxter Theatre Centre's production of Hamlet at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival. Sifting through all this, I found a symbol of life which exists in unlikely relationships."
Suzman, who directed Hamlet, kick-started the Brett Goldin Bursary along with fellow South African and RSC Associate Sir Antony Sher, the RSC and the Baxter Theatre Centre after the 27-year-old actor and his fashion-designer friend Richard Bloom were killed over the Easter weekend in 2006.
Almost all of Shakespeare's female leads
In a career spanning five decades, Janet Suzman has played almost the full list of Shakespeare's female leads, including Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Beatrice in Much Ado, and Ophelia in Hamlet, as well as directing adaptations of Othello and The Cherry Orchard. The Johannesburg-born actress and niece of anti-apartheid activist Helen Suzman was nominated for an Academy Award for her first film lead in the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra.
Twenty-five-year-old Khayalethu Anthony makes his mainstream theatre debut in this production in the role of the young Solomon.
Opposite spectrums of the South African context
In Solomon and Marion two very different characters, an ageing and heartbroken English white woman and a young black man, each from opposite spectrums of the South African context, each carrying narratives of significant loss, are thrown together by extraordinary circumstances.
Through delicate and careful storytelling, a transition is facilitated from a condition of darkness to hope. The characters come face to face with their own and each other's fears, culpability and longing, which gradually turn to empathy and, ultimately, the revelation of truth. Losing a child is unspeakable; losing a child to violence is unthinkable. Is it even possible to begin to deal with such pain?
Patrick Curtis is responsible for design and lighting design is by Mannie Manim.
Solomon and Marion previews on 27 and 28 October, opens 29 and runs until 26 November at 7pm nightly with two matinees on 10 and 12 November at 2pm. Booking is now open at Computicket on 0861 915 8000, online at www.computicket.co.za or at any Shoprite Checkers outlet countrywide. Ticket prices range from R120 (previews and matinees) to R180.
