Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990 TAG: 9004040855
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHRIS GLADDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And her eccentric creations - concrete and beer-bottle camels, scrap-metal owls with headlights for eyes - would find themselves enshrined in coffee table books, uptown galleries and the bidding rooms of exclusive auction galleries.
But Fugard has set his story in 1974 in a small village in South Africa, where Miss Helen is perceived as a threat to the rigid conformity that seems to be a way of life in a country that has clung desperately to its intolerance.
"The Road to Mecca" inaugurates Mill Mountain Theatre's new Theatre B that fronts on Church Ave. According to the theater, it is only coincidental that another Fugard production inaugurated the original Theatre B. At any rate, Fugard seems to provide a good omen for Mill Mountain's secondary hall. Both productions demonstrate just how much of an asset Theatre B and its productions are to local theater. Fugard handles ideas as deftly as he does language and "Mecca" casts an emotionally charged spell from beginning to end.
It's a three character play with Miss Helen at the center. Played with forceful dignity by Basia McCoy, Miss Helen is a widow who begins following artistic visions after the end of her loveless marriage.
Her vegetable garden diminishes as her sculptures of exotic figures increase and her house becomes a glittering shrine of broken mirrors and candles. Miss Helen - like all true environmental visionaries - is creating a world for herself not out of choice but out of compulsion. Her work has become her reason to live but as she grows older, the more pious members of her community wish to put her in an adult home for "her own good."
Her best friend and chief supporter is Elsa Barlow, a teacher from Capetown who wandered into Miss Helen's garden one day and was immediately captivated by the woman and her art. Elsa has driven 800 miles in answer to a desperate letter from Miss Helen that includes references to suicide.
Miss Helen's visions have left her and the pressure is increasing for her to leave her home for an institution. Played with a humane fierceness by Leticia Copeland, Elsa feels that Miss Helen should maintain her independence. At the same time, she's trying to deal with her own personal and professional upheavals.
Elsa's apparent enemy is Marius Byleveld, a clergyman who has kept tabs on Miss Helen for 20 years and who admits that he sees Miss Helen's statues pointing east toward Mecca as a form of idolatry. But what makes Fugard so compelling is his ability to unveil an increasing depth to his characters. Motivations and emotional dynamics are not always as simple as they seem. Warren Watson skillfully allows the character of Marius to grow into someone more sympathetic than the initial impression he leaves.
Mary Best-Bova's sensitive direction underscores the kind of complexity that Fugard so artfully constructs and expresses the playwright's regard for the individual with the same force that Miss Helen's statues reflect her unavoidable need to express herself.
The play runs through April 22. For information, call the box office at 342-5740.
by CNB