Long Wharf Theatre

NEW HAVEN - Roslyn Ruff, rehearsing for the upcoming play Coming Home at Long Wharf Theatre, lay in a small cot, suffering as she calls her for young son. "Thank God. That is more important to Mommy than anything else. And please . . ."

From left: Roslyn Ruff, Colman Domingo, and Mel Eichler of the world premiere Long Wharf production, with Bronwyn Van Graan and David Isaacs, who will perform in Coming Home in South Africa later in 2009.

A pair of South African voices sounded out the word, which means "loved one." "I love having the instant expert here," said director Gordon Edelstein.

Bronwyn Van Graan and David Isaacs, two of the leads of the South African premiere of Athol Fugard's Coming Home, sat in on rehearsal at Long Wharf Theatre on Wednesday, Dec. 17. They offered a bit of background on South African life while soaking up ideas for their own performances. "This is very exciting. We are getting an early taste of the play," Van Graan said.

The world premiere of the play will take place from Jan. 14 through Feb. 8, 2009 on Long Wharf Theatre's Mainstage. Coming Home will then make its South African debut at the Baxter Theatre Centre at the University of Cape Town from March 24 through the end of April.

Van Graan and Isaacs' trek to Long Wharf Theatre was almost purely by chance. The pair was planning to come to the United States over the holidays and stumbled upon Long Wharf Theatre while doing Internet research. The artistic director of the Baxter Theatre contacted Athol Fugard who, in turn, alerted Gordon Edelstein.

Fugard is a legendary figure in his native South Africa, a man whose protest theatre played a large role in the demise of apartheid. "Everyone has to study Fugard," Isaacs said. "I think his impact and significance is huge."

The special challenge for Isaacs - a noted television and stage actor in South Africa - is shedding his comedic image as a performer, he said. He is the co-star of a hit South African comedy series and has also spent the last decade performing a comedy he created for the stage.

"This is a departure for me. It is completely different," said Isaacs, who will be playing the role of Alfred, a decent, simple man, in the South African production.

For Van Graan, there will be a bit of a learning curve in playing the role of Veronica, a young mother with HIV trying to make a better life for her son.

"It is not something that I've been familiar with," said Van Graan, noting that there is a very serious problem with the disease in South Africa. "There is an intensity that comes with living with the virus," she said.

Much of South African theatre focuses on the experience of living in large cities, like Van Graan's hometown of Cape Town. Fugard's work, often set in the rural Karoo region of South Africa, has a complexity that she is excited to delve into.

"He often writes about the forgotten characters, people who live out of society," Van Graan said.

Isaacs spoke of the richness of Fugard's language, the writer's ability to paint pictures with words. "There is a sense of the old values that still exist. That is also something I wanted to explore," Isaacs said.

LONG WHARF THEATRE, founded in 1965, is recognized as a leader in American theater, producing fresh and imaginative revivals of classics and modern plays, rediscoveries of neglected works and a variety of world and American premieres.

More than 30 Long Wharf productions have transferred virtually intact to Broadway or off-Broadway, including the 2005 production of BFE by Julia Cho, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning plays Wit by Margaret Edson, The Shadow Box by Michael Cristofer, and The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn.

Long Wharf has received New York Drama Critics Awards, Obie Awards, the Margo Jefferson Award for Production of New Works, a Special Citation from the Outer Critics Circle, and the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

Steven Scarpa
Director of Communications
Long Wharf Theatre
222 Sargent Drive
New Haven, CT 06511
Direct: 203-772-8255
Fax: 203-776-2287
Email: steven.scarpa@longwharf.org