HARTFORD, CT — April 25, 2018 — Hartford Stage Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak
and Managing Director Michael Stotts today announced the cast and
creative team for Athol Fugard’s A Lesson from Aloes. Ariyon Bakare, Randall Newsome and Andrus
Nichols will appear in the revered Fugard drama. The play will perform Thursday,
May 17, through Sunday, June 10 – closing out Hartford Stage’s 2017-18 season. Tresnjak
will direct.
“In his powerful and
lyrical plays, Athol Fugard captures how changing political landscapes strain
marriages, friendships, and communities,” Tresnjak said. “A Lesson from
Aloes is one of the great plays of the last century.”
Set in 1963, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, A Lesson
from Aloes is a compelling portrait of three individuals caught in the
midst of the nation’s racial divide and the choices each one is forced to make.
Considered by many to be a masterpiece, A
Lesson from Aloes made its American debut at Yale Repertory Theatre in
1980. The play, starring James Earl Jones and directed by Fugard,
transferred to Broadway later that year – receiving a Tony Award nomination for
Best Play in 1981. The New York Post called A
Lesson from Aloes “immensely moving.” The New York Times wrote,
"Exile, madness, utter loneliness – these are the only alternatives Mr.
Fugard's characters have. What makes ‘Aloes’ so moving is the
playwright's insistence on the heroism and integrity of these harsh
choices."
Athol
Fugard has been hailed as “the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking
world” by Time Magazine. The South
African playwright has won international praise for creating works of “power,
glory, and majestic language.” In more than 20 plays, written over six decades
– including The
Captain's Tiger, Valley Song, My Children! My Africa, The Island, “Master Harold” and the Boys, and the award-winning Sizwe Banzi is Dead – Fugard has
chronicled the struggles of men and women of all races for dignity and human
fulfillment.
Fugard is an Honorary Fellow of Britain’s
Royal Society of Literature. In 2001, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime
Achievement. His novel Tsotsi was
adapted into a film which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2006. Fugard
also appeared as an actor in the feature films Gandhi and The Killing Fields.
In 2014, he returned to the stage for the first time in 15 years to act in the
world premiere of his play Shadow of the
Hummingbird at the Long Wharf Theatre.
British actor Ariyon
Bakare plays Steve in A Lesson from
Aloes. Bakare is well-known to English audiences for his roles on the BBC
miniseries A Respectable Trade and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, as
well as the British daytime drama The
Doctors. He most recently appeared in the films Life and Rogue One: A Star
Wars Story. Bakare’s theatre credits include his Ian Charleson-nominated
performance in A Servant to Two Masters
at the Young Vic, the U.K. premiere of Laurence Fishburne’s Riff Raff at New Theatre Company, and
the European premiere of Dream of the Dog
in the West End. Next year, Bakare will appear in the six-part Amazon
miniseries Good Omens, based on the novel
by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet.
Veteran actor Randall
Newsome will play Piet. Newsome has appeared on Broadway in An Enemy of the People (Manhattan
Theatre Club) and A Touch of the Poet (Roundabout
Theatre). His Off-Broadway appearances include The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (New York Theatre Workshop) and Carnival Kids (Lesser America). He has
appeared in regional productions at the McCarter Theatre Center, Steppenwolf
Theatre, and the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Newsome’s film
credits includes the Oscar-nominated Hidden
Figures and A Walk in the Woods
with Robert Redford. He has a recurring role in the hit IFC horror comedy
series Stan Against Evil and has
appeared on Person of Interest, Boardwalk Empire, The Good Wife, and House of
Cards.
Andrus
Nichols, co-founder of the Obie
Award-winning Off-Broadway company Bedlam,
will play Gladys. Nichols has appeared in Sense
& Sensibility, Twelfth Night,
Hamlet, The Seagull and Saint Joan
at Bedlam. Additional Off-Broadway and New York theatre credits include The Libertine at The Chernuchin, They Promised Her the Moon at Theatre at
St. Clements, and Incognito at The
Manhattan Theatre Club. Nichols appeared in regional productions of A View from the Bridge at the Goodman
Theatre and Saint Joan and Hamlet at the McCarter Theatre Center. Her
television and film credits include the new NBC series Rise, The Fiction, South
Mountain, and Wash Song.
Director
Darko Tresnjak’s Hartford Stage credits include A Gentleman’s Guide to
Love and Murder (winner of four 2014 Tony Awards, including Best
Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Tresnjak); the new musical Anastasia, currently
on Broadway; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Heartbreak House; The
Comedy of Errors; Rear Window; Romeo & Juliet; and Hamlet. Other
recent credits include The Killer (2014 Obie Award for
Direction) at Theatre for a New Audience and The Ghosts of Versailles at
LA Opera. Tresnjak will be making his debut this fall at The Metropolitan
Opera, directing Samson et Dalila.
In addition to Tresnjak, the creative team is comprised of Set
Designer Tim Mackabee (The Elephant Man, Broadway and
the West End; Luce, Lincoln Theater
Center); Costume Designer Blair Gulledge (Raging Skillet and The Wolves, TheaterWorks);
Lighting Designer Matthew Richards (Heartbreak House, The
Comedy of Errors and Twelfth
Night, Hartford Stage); Sound Designer Jane Shaw (Seder,
Heartbreak House and The Comedy of Errors, Hartford Stage) and
Dialect Coach Ben Furey (A Christmas Carol – A Ghost Story of Christmas and Cloud 9 at Hartford Stage; national tour
of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder).
Robyn M. Zalewski (A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, Heartbreak House
and The Comedy of Errors at Hartford
Stage) will serve as Production Stage Manager, with Nicole Wiegert (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hartford
Stage; James
and the Giant Peach and Big Fish at First Stage Milwaukee) as Assistant
Stage Manager.
