"My debt of gratitude to Michael, Dorothy and Mark for giving two of my most cherished characters a new passionate and vibrant life; it is the biggest one a playwright can have" – Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard’s classic drama, Hello and Goodbye, starring husband and wife team, Dorothy ann Gould and Michael Maxwell, comes to the Baxter Sanlam Studio from October 7 to November 1, 43 years after it was first performed.
Directed by Mark Graham, this new production also marks the inaugural presentation in Cape Town of Tripletake Productions, a theatre company formed by Gould, Maxwell and Graham. When it premiered in Johannesburg earlier this year was said to “have done Fugard proud.”
“When asked to name my favourite among the 50 years of playwriting that lie behind me now at the age of 76, Hello and Goodbye is without fail one of the three that comes to mind. It joins Blood Knot in being the moment nearly half a century ago when I discovered my own voice as a playwright,” said Fugard, who has been described by Time Magazine as the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.
The powerful and gripping two-hander, as pertinent today as it was when it was written in 1965, brings together on stage for the first time the husband and wife team of Gould and Maxwell, both 2008 Naledi Award winners.
The consummate performances of these two multi-award winning theatre professionals have been hailed by the press as “mesmerizing” and “breathtaking”, “immaculate” and possessing “heart-catching, pensive beauty”.
Also a multiple award winner, Mark Graham’s direction of this piece has been called “unforgettable and courageous, powerful and intense”. This production has earned many accolades, amongst which are: “a glorious experience”, “riveting timeless courageous theatre”, “magnificent to watch”, “a fine theatrical emotional reading,” “a consummate performance of a great play by a great playwright,” and "a momentous theatrical experience.”
Set in the kitchen of a railway house in Port Elizabeth in 1963, the play softly cauterizes the wounded lives of its characters. A brother and sister who have not seen each other for years, unpack boxes and suitcases in search of an elusive inheritance and in so doing unpack the memories and truths of their empty and damaged lives.
The sister, Hester, has survived in Johannesburg through prostitution, while her brother Johnny has stayed at home to care for their crippled father. Both of them have lost or sacrificed their own dreams in the time since they last saw each other and this brief encounter is characterized by anger, hate and fear, with flashes of tenderness and emotional subtlety. The encounter all but destroys any vestiges of familial love which have survived unacknowledged in their existences.
Hello and Goodbye is classic Fugard, unashamedly South African, placed in the environment in which he grew up amongst the ironies and dichotomies of life in South Africa at the time.
Johnny and Hester are considered to be among the greatest roles in South African theatre and have been played by luminaries like Yvonne Bryceland, Janet Suzman, Bill Flynn, Sir Antony Sher, Ben Kingsley and Athol Fugard himself.
Hello and Goodbye previews at the Baxter Sanlam Studio on October 7 and 8, opens October 9 and runs until November 1, at 8.15pm nightly.
Booking is through Computicket on 083 915 8100, on line at www.computicket.co.za or any Shoprite/Checkers outlet. For discounted block, corporate or school bookings, charities or fundraisers call Sharon on 021 680 3962.
Production Information Production: Hello and Goodbye Written by: Athol Fugard Directed by: Mark Graham Cast: Dorothy ann Gould, Michael Maxwell Lighting: Wesley France
Dates: Previews 7, 8 October, opens 9 October until 1 November Venue: Baxter Sanlam Studio Times: 8.15 pm nightly, Monday to Saturday Ticket Prices: Previews R75, Baxter Mondays R50 (Show and light meal special), Tuesday–Thursday R100, Friday–Saturday R110
Biographies
Athol Fugard, Author Athol Fugard was born in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape and grew up in Port Elizabeth. He is widely regarded as one of South Africa’s leading writers and directors. Time Magazine has named him the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.
Fugard’s impressive list of plays includes No-Good Friday (1958), Nongogo (1959), The Blood Knot (1961), Hello and Goodbye (1965), The Coat (1966), People are Living There (1968), Boesman and Lena (1969), Orestes (1971), Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act (1972), Sizwe Banzi is Dead (1972), with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, The Island (1973) by Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Dimetos (1975), A Lesson from Aloes (1978), “Master Harold” and the Boys (1982), The Road to Mecca (1984), A Place with the Pigs (1987), My Children! My Africa! (1989), Playland (1992), My Life (1994), Valley Song (1995), The Captain’s Tiger (1997), Sorrows and Rejoicings (2001), Exits and Entrances (2004), Booitjie and the Oubaas (2006) and Victory (2007).
Three of his plays have been produced as films: Boesman and Lena in 1976 and 2000, “Master Harold”... and the Boys in 1984 and The Road to Mecca in 1992. He also wrote the screenplay for The Guest and Marigolds in August. The acclaimed movie Tsotsi, based on his novel, recently won the Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category for South Africa. His Valley Song had its world premiere at Spier in Cape Town as an opera in 2005.
Fugard has been honoured with numerous local and international awards and honorary doctorates in recognition of his contribution to theatre.
Now 76, he is based in San Diego, California.
Dorothy ann Gould Dorothy ann Gould is one of South Africa’s leading actresses; the recipient of 22 Best Actress Awards, her career has taken her to America, Europe and especially the United Kingdom where she has worked and continued to work every year since 1989.
In South Africa, highlights in her career include the leading roles in Stevie, Talleys Folly, Anouilth’s and Sophocles Antigone, Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Othello, (as Emilia, directed by Janet Suzman and filmed for Channel 4) Titus Andronicus (as Tamora opposite Sir Antony Sher at the Market Theatre, The Royal National Theatre and in Spain, directed by Greg Doran) Hamlet (Gertrude in Cape Town and in Stratford upon Avon), The Taming of the Shrew, The Breath of Life, Malora (in S.A., Germany, Holland, U.K. USA Greece and Ireland), The Graduate, Tom and Viv, Dancing at Lughnasa, Hello and Goodbye and Hedda Gabler.
In her years in the U.K. she performed in A View from the Bridge, The Government Inspector, The Seagull and As You Like It at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, Abracadaver at Theatre Royal Plymouth, The Cherry Orchard and The Free State at Birmingham Rep and on a National Tour and Roald Dahl’s The Witches at The Duke of York, London West End and on a year long number one tour of 48 cities in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. She also compiled and performed in a programme of South African prose and poetry for the Shakespeare Trust, Stratford upon Avon. In America she played the leading role in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, at The Cidermill, Upstate New York.
Her television work in South Africa has been extensive covering nine local mini-series, a two- year stint on a daily drama, Isidingo, and five one off dramas.
She has performed on radio since the age of 15 and most recently was invited to the B.B.C. to perform in Athol Fugards People are Living There.Barney Simon at the Market Theatre in 1993 involving 37 different language groups.
She has directed many plays for the theatre notably Brecht’s Baal, Lorca’s Yerma, Peter Weis’s Marat Sade, Japes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Arcadia, Antony and Cleopatra and Miller’s Broken Glass.
A teacher of voice and acting since 1972 she is the founder of The Actors Centre at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, one of only four centres in the world. She recently returned from a highly successful, sold out season of Hamlet launching the International Shakespeare Festival in Stratford upon Avon and performed in Green Man Flashing at The Oval House Theatre, London.
She is half way through a world tour of Molora and has just started a company called Tripletake.
Michael Maxwell Theatrical career started at the Market Theatre in 1976, where he worked in many capacities: stage manager, production manager, international tour manager, actor, lighting designer and acting teacher at the Market Theatre Laboratory. Between 1993 and 1996 he was the manager of the Market Theatre Company where he produced many award-winning productions such as Scenes from an Execution, Hysteria and collaborated on many of the late Barney Simon’s productions.
As an actor he has worked extensively in theatre, film, radio and television. He won a Johannesburg Critics’ Circle Award for his performance in Brighton Beach Memoirs and has, over the years, appeared in a number of local soap operas and mini series such as Isidingo, Generations and Faulkner’s Law.
As a lighting designer, he has been nominated for awards several times, winning for Scenes from an Execution, Kafka Dances, Yelena, Hello and Goodbye and Tryptich.
For the past eight years he has been touring internationally with Robyn Orlin’s City Theatre and Dance Group. Michael is an accomplished musician and composer and has collaborated on two albums with friend, Frank Opperman. He returned to the boards as an actor playing Gellberg in Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass to great acclaim at The Actors Centre in 2007 and in Fugard’s Hello and Goodbye in February 2008. He has been a Board member of Sibikwa Community Arts Centre for the past 12 years.
Mark Graham, Director Mark Graham has been involved in the theatre and television industries as a Director and Educator for the past twenty- five years. During that time he has directed approximately one hundred productions for the stage across the genres of drama, comedy, the classics, opera, cabaret and revue, musical theatre and new South African plays.
He held the position of Resident Director at the Natal Playhouse in the late nineteen eighties and has run several theatre companies dedicated to the development and production of South African works, including Opdrag Productions with Jana Cilliers and currently Tripletake Productions with Dorothy Ann Gould and Michael Maxwell.
He has directed eight television series, both drama and comedy, and is currently the Artistic Director of Africa’s biggest television show, Generations. He has received more than twenty-five awards and nominations for his directing work in theatre and television.
As an Educator, he has held the positions of Lecturer in Acting and Directing at the University of Stellenbosch’s Drama Department, Head of Drama at Cape Town’s City Varsity School of Film and Television and recently completed a four year period as Chairman of The Actors Centre at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre. He is frequently invited to act as External Examiner in Acting and Directing at various tertiary institutions including the University of the Witwatersrand and the Tshwane University of Technology.
Athol Fugard’s classic drama, Hello and Goodbye, starring husband and wife team, Dorothy ann Gould and Michael Maxwell, comes to the Baxter Sanlam Studio from October 7 to November 1, 43 years after it was first performed. 