'Sorrows and Rejoicings' at McCarter Theatre

The newest play written and directed by world-renowned South African playwright, Athol Fugard, "Sorrows and Rejoicings" had its world premier last week at McCarter Theatre.

It is the story of two South African women, the black, Marta Barends and the white, Allison Olivier, who try to come to terms with the role that the other played in the life of the man that they both loved, Dawid Olivier. As the women remember moments from his life, "Sorrows and Rejoicings" reveals the steady downward spiral of Dawid's life of writing poetry and then going into exile while the women, powerless to save him, could only watch his self-destruction.

"Sorrows and Rejoicings," above all, is about reconciliation: between Marta and Allison, between Dawid and his illegitimate child by Marta, Rebecca and finally between the "new" South Africa and the "old," apartheid-era South Africa. Because none of these reconciliations quite succeed, however, the audience cannot help but leave the theater feeling as helpless as the spectators in Dawid's ruin.

The play between Marta (L. Scott Caldwell), the Olivier's servant, Allison (Blair Brown), Dawid's wife, and Rebecca (Marcie Halliel) takes place in the Olivier house in South Africa's Karoo region, an arid, American Southwestern area near Johannesburg. In order to communicate the landscape, the two concentric walls of the set, which extended to the ceiling of the theater, are painted in textured browns, blacks and grays.

The setting of the house is in the form of an abstract wooden door frame. This frame helps to focus the space down into the living room, as do the table and chairs, and provides an excellent frame for Rebecca's watchfulness.

The table in the room, around which much of the action takes place, and upon which many of the memories of the women are based, becomes a sort of stage-within-a-stage, the intimacy of which any audience can share.

The play itself begins moments after Dawid's (John Glover) funeral. Allison and Marta walk into the living room of the Olivier house, which Marta has kept up since Dawid's exile 17 years earlier while Rebecca remains aloof and listening in the doorway.

The three women begin a journey to explore the loss they feel at Dawid's death and to come to terms with each other. Rebecca watches as the two women fill the gaps of the other's experiences with Dawid. Marta tells Allison of Dawid's childhood and his attachment to the Karoo, a sere, rural, very Afrikaaner region of the country while Allison tells Marta about his time in exile in London.

The development of the two women is overshadowed by Dawid and Rebecca's relationship. This is partly because the women are storytelling and remembering, not actually living through anything climactic at the time of their interaction. Dawid's scenes, however, are pivotal moments in his life, and John Glover takes over the entire stage as the women watch and remember.

Glover's energy and the vitality he projects as Dawid are truly overwhelming and engaging, providing well-timed respites from the depressing tone of the women's stories. There was an interesting directorial choice to keep Dawid onstage for much of the play so that the women can invoke him at will.

Overall, the play is extremely touching. Although it is written about specifically South African themes, the play resonates particularly well with the American mentality in several ways. Just like South Africa, there are culture clashes and racial strife that continue today despite superficial claims of equality.

We have a history of segregation, slavery and civil rights movements. We see evidence of our ongoing problems in such explosions as the Cincinnati riots of recent weeks.

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Most importantly, the play reaches into American hearts because it is a story of a reconciliation that eventually transcends race between the generations of a single family living in a country filled with frustration and the ongoing struggle to find its identity.