Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act

Forty years on it’s as relevant as ever

Athol Fugard's Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act has been extended by popular demand to Saturday 18 February 2012. The production is presented by Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre and is directed by Kim Kerfoot, a recent recipient of the Gipca/Baxter Theatre Centre and the Theatre Arts Admin Collective Emerging Theatre Director's Bursary. It stars Bo Petersen, Malefane Mosuhli and Jeroen Kranenburg and has received outstanding reviews since opening on Tues 24 January for a limited season at the Fugard Studio Theatre in District 6.

“It is not often that a play performed 40 years after it was written can find such deep resonance in current society... ..the script is poetic....and Fugard’s mastery of language is evident throughout...” - Tracey Saunders, Cape Times

The storyline
Set in apartheid South Africa, where relationships across the colour bar were a criminal offence, two lovers - a black man and white woman meet secretly in the library where the woman works to make love and share their hopes and fears. An observant neighbour reports them to the police who secretly photographs them from the informant's backyard and eventually break in and arrest the couple under the then inhuman and universally pilloried Immorality Act. The play is a compelling and deeply moving love story in which the physically and emotionally naked lovers expose not only their bodies but also their deepest longings for personal and emotional freedom.  
 
The issue rages on
The recent debate around the DA Youth Organization’s choice of campaign poster and the debate around the “Statements…” production poster has added depth to this deeply relevant subject matter – 40 years after the play was first presented in a divided South Africa.

“It is always wonderful to be in a position to extend a production due to popular demand, particularly when the production is an excellent local one and carries such importance for our South African society,” says Daniel Galloway, the Fugard Theatre’s General Manager.

Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act runs at the Fugard Studio until 18 February 2012 from Mondays to Saturdays. Performances are at 8pm.

Tickets: cost from R100p/p to R140p/p and are available through Computicket and the Fugard Theatre box office (see details below.) on 021 461 4554. Discounts are available for all Friends of the Fugard.

Please note: For reasons of nudity and subject matter this production is not suitable for persons younger than 16.

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