Award-winning play – Suddenly the Storm
he nail-biting story takes place in Johannesburg’s East Rand at the home of an ageing former policeman, Dwayne Combrink and his much younger wife, Shanell.
Suddenly the Storm, Paul Slabolepszy’s highly acclaimed award-winning play, returns for a limited three-week season at The Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino from March 12 to 29.
Launched initially to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising, Suddenly the Storm had its world premiere at the Barney Simon at Jozi’s’s Market Theatre on June 7, 2016. A season at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, as well as Durban’s Playhouse followed, where the play continued running to capacity audiences and nightly standing ovations.
The play walked away with three Naledi Awards; Best New South African Script (Paul Slabolepszy), Best Theatre Set Design (Greg, King) and Best Lighting Design (Wesley France) as well as a Fleur Du Cap Award in Cape Town for Greg King’s Set Design.
Suddenly the Storm has been described as one of the most powerful South African plays since the birth of democracy.
Set in contemporary South Africa, the play poses the question of whether the wounds of the past can really be healed.
The nail-biting story takes place in Johannesburg’s East Rand at the home of an ageing former policeman, Dwayne Combrink and his much younger wife, Shanell.
Combative, volatile, constantly on the verge of exploding, Dwayne and Shanell Combrink are two halves of a white South African working-class couple, living an uneasy truce as they struggle with the day-to-day trials of scraping together a living and dreaming competing dreams.
Beneath Dwayne’s angry, violent exterior lies the heartbreak that governs his attitude to life.
Dwayne is a man in mourning. Shanell believes his current level of despair was sparked by the death of his childhood friend and recent work partner, Jonas, but the source of his mourning and anger lies much further back.
When the elegant and self-contained Namhla Gumede, born on June 16, 1976, arrives on their doorstep seeking answers to questions that have remained buried for 40 years, Dwayne and Shanell finally discover the truth.
What begins as a smouldering dark comedy suddenly turns into a roller-coaster ride of startling revelations, of rage and recrimination before the storm finally breaks.
Performances are Tuesdays to Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4pm and 8pm and Sundays at 3pm.
Ticket prices range from R100 to R240 and bookings can be made through Computicket.
