Tramway Road

Tramway Road is a play by Ronald Harwood (1934-).

Original text

First performed at the Lyric Theatre, London, 23 October 1984 with Freddie Jones, Richard E. Grant, William Vanderpuye, and Annette Crosbie. The play is set in 1951, one year after the Population Registration Act was passed in South Africa. Tramway Road had a special notoriety for all those who lived in Sea Point, a white residential suburb of Cape Town. It also exerts its influence over all the characters in this play: an expatriate English couple, Arthur and Dora Langley; Emil, a young man with dreams of becoming an actor in London; and Jacob, a Cape Coloured house servant who is king of his local Coon Carnival troupe. Tramway Road, and all that it represents, inevitably shatters their hopes, their peace and their ideals. Published by Amber Lane Press, 1984.

Performance history in South Africa

1985: A Baxter Company '85 production was presented at the Baxter Theatre, opening on 20 March. Directed by Leonard Schach with Keith Grenville, David Dennis, Soli Philander, Brenda Wood. Design by Peter Krummeck. Lighting and assistant to the director Per-Olof Fernlund.

1985: The Baxter Company '85 production was also presented by NAPAC at the Alhambra Theatre, Durban.

Sources

http://www.stageplays.com/products/tramway_road/Ronald%20Harwood

Tramway Road theatre programme, 1985.

Barrow, Brian & Williams-Short, Yvonne 1988.

Theatre programme for the NAPAC production held by NELM: [Collection: KORT, Maurice]: 2012. 379. 38. 16.

Review by Raeford Daniel, The Rand Daily Mail, 25 March 1985.

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