Directed by Diane Page, winner of the JMK Award
Frieda and Errol meet in darkness. Theirs is a love story that can never thrive in the light.A relationship interrupted, by white supremacist law.“And then at the end as at the beginning, they will find you again. Guilty.”A play about then that speaks to now.
A vital part of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, playwright Athol Fugard’s prolific career spans seven decades. In 2019 we produced his play Blood Knot: “Compelling… Feels just as relevant, and resonant, for our times” (The Guardian).
His other plays include “Master Harold”…and the Boys“, The Road to Mecca, Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island. A rare revival of a classic play directed by Diane Page, winner of the JMK Award. Her recent credits include Out West (co-director – Lyric Hammersmith), Ghost Stories (Associate Director – West End & UK Tour), and Bartholomew Fair (Assistant Director – Shakespeare’s Globe). Paul Miller, Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre: “I am seriously delighted that Diane Page, this year’s winner of the JMK Award, will play a key part in the OT’s Recovery Season. Her passion and insight into Athol Fugard’s seminal classic blew us away, and in particular her feeling for it as a powerful response to recent events. In Diane the JMK Award has once again struck gold. I can’t wait for audiences to return and experience this electric play, in the hands of such an exciting director.”
The JMK Trust was founded in the memory James Menzies-Kitchin – a theatre director of thrilling promise – to give practical learning opportunities to theatre directors of similar ability and vision. The JMK Award allows one such director a year to stage their own production of a classic text.www.jmktrust.org
The OT produced the JMK Award-winning production for the first time in 2019 with Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu directing a critically acclaimed production of Little Baby Jesus by Arinzé Kene.
