"The Road to Mecca" at Z Below

 

Production photo by Kevin Berne

This show kind of sneaked up on us. I admit I don't pay close enough attention to what's playing at Z Space and Z Below, but when a friend mentioned that there was an Athol Fugard play going up at Z Below, it seemed like a great idea.I haven't seen a lot of Fugard's work, but I always find the stories fascinating, so this was an easy choice.

The Play

I didn't really know much coming into this, but the more I learned from the program and some online poking, the more interesting it became. Most specifically, finding out that the play was inspired by the life of an actual person was super intriguing!

So, we have an older (~70) woman living by herself in a small, remote town in South Africa in 1974. New Bethesda is a conservative, religious town mostly populated by Afrikaners, and Miss Helen has been something of an outcast in the community since her husband died and she started making art in her yard. The cement sculptures she populates her yard in are meant to indicate a move to "Mecca", or more broadly, "the East". No one in town knows quite what to make of Miss Helen or her Mecca.

Enter Elsa, a young British woman who was just passing through. She became friends with Miss Helen and appreciated her artwork, then moved on to Cape Town where she now teaches. The play commences with Elsa returning, unannounced, to Miss Helen's home, in response to a disturbing letter she has received from Miss Helen.

In the first act, Elsa and Miss Helen have a bit of a reunion interspersed with some verbal jockeying and difficult discussions. It appears the local church is trying to get Miss Helen to move to a retirement community for her own good, but Elsa suspects there is more to it, and that Marius, the pastor, is up to something.

In act two, Marius arrives on the scene and all three characters have some deep, difficult discussions. A lot gets dredged up from all of them.

It's not a big play, but it's deep, and the characters get well into the role of the individual versus the interests of the group, the rights of the indigenous "coloured" peoples, and much more. It's very personal for all of the characters, but with much wider implications. The interplay of "love" and "trust" is a big key to it all.

The Performance

The set is really evocative: an eclectic space with lots of candles and little art pieces in a fairly rustic home. The design by Erik Flatmo, lighted by Kurt Landisman, with props and set decoration by Leah Hammond, is really evocative. It's a small, homey space, but very particular to this character, Miss Helen (Wendy vanden Heuvel). Miss Helen has terrific rapport with Elsa (Kodi Jackman), though it's also very clear that there is much being left unsaid for much of the play. The staid, reserved Marius (Victor Talmadge) is both an outsider to the women's more familial relationship, but very much the establishment of the local community. It's a pretty complex dynamic for such a small set of people, but the actors do a good job with it. Director Timothy Near seems to have a good feel for Fugard and the South African culture, and it comes through in the performance.

Both vanden Heuvel and Talmadge have occasional difficulty with the Afrikaner accent, but both handle it well enough most of the time to keep it from being a distraction.

The Bottom Line

The material was dense and sometimes difficult, but ultimately it was a pretty gripping and emotionally interesting story. All three characters are interesting, and the production is visually appealing. All in all, it was a satisfying evening at the theater. Unfortunately, the show is closing on June 30th, so you've probably missed it. But it's worth keeping an eye open for shows at Z Space, and particularly those by Weathervane Productions, which presented this show.