Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, January 26, 1990 Page: 20 of 28
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(713) 976
LISTEN TO WHAT THEY'VE OOT AND WHAT THEY WANT —
THEN LEAVE YOUR ANSWER IN COMPUTE PRIVACY
mail-system 1.900.234.2345
YOU DONT LEAVE YOUR PHONE NUMBER ON AN OPEN LINE!
II s I 50v \ MINI II FOR IIIK FIRM MINI If YOl MIST HF IH TO l SI miSSF.RNHT IW SK THORK ( (IMMl Nl( ATIIIVS
Mecca: Quaint setting for
paternalistic power play
SIMPLE STRUGGLE DEPICTS TENSIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN APARTHEID
Reviewed by JERRY GARRETT
Theater Critic
suppose everyone has childhood
■ memories of a neighborhood crazy
fl lady. The character must be universal.
.He, Ours was named Rosa Spiars. We
caught the school bus on the corner by her
gray, barnlike house, with its long, open front
porch, where she sat in a wooden rocker
every' morning, pretending not to notice us
whispering about her. We tormented Mrs.
Spiars endlessly by stealing her pecans.
The central figure in Althol Fugard’s play,
The Road to Mecca, is a neighborhood crazy
lady, South African-style. A widowed “artist,”
Helen Martins has decorated her yard with
fantastical homemade lawn sculptures, fash-
ioned of concrete, ceramic tiles and glass
fragments — mermaids, owls, three wise men
pointing east. Her house, too, where she lives
in virtual isolation, is filled with colored glass,
scraps of shiny metal and many, many can
dies, litis domain, this shining light in an
otherwise dark world, Helen has named her
“Mecca.”
As might be expected, human nature being
what it is, Helen’s eccentricities have raised
the suspicion and ire of her neighbors in the
Afrikaaner community of New Bethesda.
Marius Byleveld, the pastor of the Dutch
Reformed Church that Helen no longer at
tends, nominates himself to get her out of
Mecca and into a nursing home.
Fugard sets up a neat little triangular power
struggle in this three-character play. Pastor
Byleveld represents the sort of repressive,
conservative paternalism that gave rise to
South Africa’s system of apartheid. He only
wants what’s best for poor Helen, or so he
Production Information
‘The Road to Mecca'
By Althol Fugard
Norma Young, director; Hartand Wright &
Cheryl Denson, set design; Christopher
Kovarik, costume design; Linda Blase,
lighting design; Tristan Wilson, sound
design.
CAST: Esther Benson, Connie Nelson,
Grant James.
WHEN; Through Feb. 18; Tuesdays through
Saturdays at 8:15 p.m.; Sundays at 7:30
p.m.; Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2:30
p<m.
WHERE: Theatre Three, 2800 Routh St. (In
the Quadrangle).
TICKETS: Prices vary; for reservations and
information, call 871-3300.
says. On the other hand is Elsa, Helen’s
progressive young schoolteacher friend from
Capetown, who also wants what’s best for
Helen — that she be left alone. Caught in the
middle is the artist herself — frightened,
confused and vulnerable.
When Theatre Three first announced that it
would produce Road to Mecca, I assumed
that it was chosen as an acting vehicle for the
theater’s founding director, Norma Young. It
would be enjoyable to see “Dallas’ First Lady
of the Theater” assay such a meaty role.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
Photo. h\ Susan Kandell
Connie Nelson (left) and Esther Benson star in Althol Fugard’s The
Road to Mecca, onstage at Theatre Three through February 18. Also
starring is Grant James (not pictured).
20
THE DALLAS VOICE/JANUARY 26. 1990
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 6, No. 39, Ed. 1 Friday, January 26, 1990, newspaper, January 26, 1990; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615716/m1/20/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.