Playland
Written and directed by Athol Fugard
With John Kani and Sean Taylor
Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney
Reviewed by Jorge Sotirios
Athol Fugard has written many a play which resonates with a commitment to the plight of the oppressed in his homeland of South Africa. More often than not, they achieve a tragic effect in which the audience is moved both emotionally and intellectually (The Road to Mecca, Boesman and Lena). Sadly, Playland is not one of them.
Superficially it is about a white man called Gideon who, on New Year's Eve, visits an amusement park and makes contact with the night watchman, Martinus. In the course of the evening, Gideon will attempt to purge himself of his past crimes in order to start afresh for the new year.
A simple plot no doubt, but one that could be used to great effect providing there is a connection — one where the actors relate to each other on a deep level, but more importantly where a connection occurs between the actors and the audience. If the actors are able to muster some heat between themselves, then the audience is able to see the revelation occurring on stage.
Perhaps the fundamental flaw of Playland lies at the very core of its philosophy. There are two competing world views at stake which remain unresolved: that of Aeschylus and that of Samuel Beckett.
For the former, the past is continually making its presence felt. The present exists only to make the past stains visible in the most tragic of ways. One must pay respect to the oracles of the gods above.
For the latter, the past is death incarnate and the present is only the after-effect of a shadowy murmur — the gods have long since gone; all that is left is man's bruised humanity.
Unless Fugard resolves this dilemma between ancient and contemporary sensibilities, one that Western philosophy has not yet resolved, any attempts to provide some sort of political debate are bound to falter.
He is trying to reconcile some of the problems that beset his society, and he at least has the guts to confront apartheid and injustice. But if the foundations are not correct, then, like the actors on the stage, there can only be gestures in the void.