THEATER REVIEW
Ultimate liberation is born
of resilience; 'The Island' casts a spell
of triumph over the brutal history of South Africa's apartheid.
Daryl
H. Miller.
Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles,
Calif.:
Apr 11, 2003. pg. E.29
(Copyright
(c) 2003 Los Angeles
Times
Pointless
duties are designed to break
the prisoners' spirits. Random blows are meant to break their bodies.
Yet they refuse to be beaten down.
Set on
South Africa's Robben Island,
where Nelson Mandela was held for nearly 18 years, "The Island"
presents a harrowing depiction of apartheid. Athol Fugard, John Kani
and Winston Ntshona wrote the play in the early 1970s, but the
qualities that suffuse their drama -- strength, dignity, defiance and,
above all, hope -- remain vital in a staging by Camelot Artists and
Black Belt Productions, which transfers to the Skylight Theatre in Los
Feliz this weekend for an extended run.
The stage
is empty and the guards are
invisible, yet Robben Island feels all too real as the prisoners
(played by David Paladino and Kenneth Rosier) groan and buckle under
their harsh treatment.
Back
in their cell, the men nurse angry
red welts and begin to shrug off the day's humiliations. As strength
returns, so does brotherhood and solidarity. They josh each other and
play a joke on the guards, but mostly they prepare for a prison
performance of the Greek drama "Antigone," through which they intend to
send a bold message.
The
story's inspiration came from the
real-life prison performance of an actor from the Serpent Players, a
theater company that Fugard helped to found. "The Island's" spirit of
resilience, coupled
with faith in the transforming
power of art, would recur in many of Fugard's subsequent stories.
Director
John Parsonson clearly understands these themes, but he doesn't
announce them in capital letters. Instead he coaxes them out in little
gestures: a hand that reaches out to give comfort or a torso held tall
and proud. From beneath layers of grime, his extraordinary actors give
their all. The result is absolutely liberating.
