Posted by: Iain Fisher
« on: June 05, 2011, 02:17:42 PM »And another review, from the West Cape News, 5 Jun 2011:
"I was sincerely disorientated when the house lights went up for interval. It felt like the play had just begun but no, my watch confirmed that 50 minutes had passed. It was a telling indication of just how enthralling Athol Fugardâs new play, âThe Bird Watchersâ, is.
...It is more a memoir, a tribute to friends now lost.
... Although the elderly writer played by Sean Taylor in the second act of The Bird Watcherâs is as full of doubts as the young Captainâs Tiger was, in reality the 79-year-old Fugard has conquered the world. He is touted as the worldâs most staged living playwright and is to receive a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement on June 12 at a ceremony in New York.
...Although Fugard stresses that the three characters in The Bird Watchers are not âmeant to represent anybody either living or deadâ, he is also on record as saying all his plays are autobiographical.
The Bird Watchers was âinspired by my relationships with two of the truly pioneering spirits of South African theatre: Barney Simon and Yvonne Bryceland. I spent many hours with the two of them in the shade of an umGwenya tree in the garden of my Port Elizabeth home, talking about theatre and life in generalâ, he notes.
... We see two versions of [a] particularly torrid afternoon in Port Elizabeth: The initial meeting of friends, and a return, 30 years later as Garthâs memories are re-enacted in a space created by his own conscience."
The full text is here
http://westcapenews.com/?p=2968
"I was sincerely disorientated when the house lights went up for interval. It felt like the play had just begun but no, my watch confirmed that 50 minutes had passed. It was a telling indication of just how enthralling Athol Fugardâs new play, âThe Bird Watchersâ, is.
...It is more a memoir, a tribute to friends now lost.
... Although the elderly writer played by Sean Taylor in the second act of The Bird Watcherâs is as full of doubts as the young Captainâs Tiger was, in reality the 79-year-old Fugard has conquered the world. He is touted as the worldâs most staged living playwright and is to receive a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement on June 12 at a ceremony in New York.
...Although Fugard stresses that the three characters in The Bird Watchers are not âmeant to represent anybody either living or deadâ, he is also on record as saying all his plays are autobiographical.
The Bird Watchers was âinspired by my relationships with two of the truly pioneering spirits of South African theatre: Barney Simon and Yvonne Bryceland. I spent many hours with the two of them in the shade of an umGwenya tree in the garden of my Port Elizabeth home, talking about theatre and life in generalâ, he notes.
... We see two versions of [a] particularly torrid afternoon in Port Elizabeth: The initial meeting of friends, and a return, 30 years later as Garthâs memories are re-enacted in a space created by his own conscience."
The full text is here
http://westcapenews.com/?p=2968