JOHANNESBURG – The Market Theatre presents the much anticipated Artscape production of The View – a South African play written and directed by Philip Rademeyer, featuring Gideon Lombard as Boy and Ella Gabriel as Actor.
A young man sits alone in a prison cell in space, looking down at a ruined earth and dreaming of being rescued.
Upon his final request, a gatekeeper delivers a video containing interviews with various people from his life (all characters are played by Ella Gabriel)each relating their opinions and feelings about the young man, his homosexuality, and the state of the world.
Ella characterises everything from the driver who brought the young man to this place of isolation, to his parents struggling to accept the loss of their son. The View illuminates the boy’s life and relationships and also reveals the reason for his incarceration.
Inspired by an American pastor’s recent comments that gays and lesbians should be contained in isolated enclosures and ultimately killed off, The View tenderly deals with notions of loss, memory and hope.
Beyond its politics, it is simply a very human story of a young man brutally separated from his loved ones purely because of who he is. It is a story of loss, grief and isolation – feelings we can all identify with.
The production has enjoyed critical recognition and has won numerous awards such as the “Oscar Wilde Award for Best New Writing” and the “Doric Wilson Intercultural Dialogue Award”, together with nominations for “Best Male Performance” and “Best Female Performance” at the International Dublin Gay Festival in May 2013.
It also received three Fleur du Cap nominations for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Director.
This project was made possible by a grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.
What the critics have said:
- “There isn’t one moment of didacticism in The View, however, unlike some of the political plays I’ve seen this festival. All ideas and messages are shrewdly interwoven into Philip Rademeyer’s wonderful script. Personal stories balance the politics of the matter. The boy’s father’s message reveals so much about the repercussions of discrimination. He says he can’t sleep in his room anymore because of his mother’s relentless crying. Either the father hasn’t realized it or he is too tough to admit it, but he sleeps in his boy’s room because he misses him. It’s a beautiful detail”
– Sarah Robertson, National Arts Festival Artsblog
- “It is beyond poignant; it’s hard hitting and very real narrative strikes at the very core”
- “Gideon Lombard as the young man delivers a deep and very dark perspective on gay life”
– Clifford Graham,The Monday Missile
- “Beautiful and timely. Essential theatre.”
- “Ella Gabriel is utterly phenomenal.”
– Michael Paye, Reviewsgate
- “Die teks… is diggeweef, dis digterlik, dis briljant.” (“The text… is densely woven, it is poetic, it is brilliant.”)
– Mariana Malan, Die Burger
- “The View is one of those rare theatre pieces that can be seen more than once… It will linger in your mind for days and Gabriel and Lombard’s performances will stay with you for weeks.”
- “Lombard is an exquisite performer.”
– Tracey Kim Saunders, The Cape Times
- “Challenging and textured, The View will linger with you long after you leave the theatre.”
- “[Gabriel] displays a breath-taking versatility.”
– Theresa Smith, Cape Argus
- “The View is truly fresh, formidable and one worth looking at”
– Michael McDermott, Le Cool Dublin
- “The View encompasses may a penetrating optic on life and best tradition of intelligent theatre.”
– Beverley Brommert, Cape Argus
- “The production deserves full marks…it is a toast to the miracle of human creation, a toast to the human soul.”
– Nico van Niekerk, Spat( Beeld)
