World Premiere By Athol Fugard To Be Staged

At Long Wharf Theatre In January

 NEW HAVEN — Athol Fugard, inarguably one of the most important living playwrights working in the English language today, will premiere his newest play Coming Home at Long Wharf Theatre.

The play, directed by Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein, will make its world premiere on Long Wharf Theatre’s Mainstage from January 14 through February 8. This debut production replaces the previously announced double bill of Victory and Valley Song, also by Fugard.

“As always, Fugard sets his play in his native South Africa, but the story’s impact is universal,” Mr Edelstein said.

Veronica Jonkers left her beloved grandfather’s farm to pursue her dream of a singing career in Cape Town. Carrying a painful secret and a heart filled with disappointment, she returns after his death and strives to plant the seeds of a new life for her young son. In this new work, master playwright Athol Fugard, hailed by Time magazine as “the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world,” finds hope in human relationships and the power of the imagination.

“Coming Home essentially finds hope in the bleakest of situations,” said Mr Edelstein. “As always, he finds beauty and redemption in relationships, as well as the power of the imagination.”

Mr Edelstein and Tony Award-winning set designer Eugene Lee, whose work on last season’s production of The Price won kudos from critics, will travel to South Africa in early September to immerse themselves in the play’s setting, the small town of New Bethesda. They will be guests in Fugard’s home as they, to quote Edelstein, soak up real South African life.

“It gives me the opportunity to see first hand what Fugard is really talking about. Athol assured me that I would see many of the characters in the play wandering around the streets of New Bethesda,” Mr Edelstein said.

Mr Fugard will take up residency in New Haven for several weeks to assist during the rehearsal process. The playwright has had a long history with the theater. His first Broadway hit, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, a 1975 play that brought the pain and immorality of South African apartheid into clear focus, received its first staging at Long Wharf Theatre.

Mr Edelstein is excited and honored that Mr Fugard chose Long Wharf Theatre to debut his most recent work.

“This is going to be one of his most important plays,” predicts the director.