Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

A 1972 play by Athol Fugard. (Usually referred to simply as "Statements"). Published in Statements: [Three Plays] in Oxford and New York by Oxford University Press, 1974.

Subject

A play about miscegenation under apartheid, telling of the tragic relationship between a “coloured" teacher and a white librarian and their arrest.

First production

First produced at the The Space Theatre (Cape Town) to an invited audience on May 25 1972. This audience then gave their input, the play was altered slightly and played to a second invited audience on the 27th of May. The play then opened for the public the following night on the 28th of May, 1972. it was the first play to run at The Space and was directed by Athol Fugard and with Yvonne Bryceland, Christopher Prophet and Percy Sieff. Lighting design by Mannie Manim, stage management by Steven Daitsh and photography by Brian Astbury.

Later productions

Staged in March 1997 in the Arena Theatre at the Nico Malan Theatre, presented by CAPAB Drama as part of the 25th anniversary of The Space Theatre, directed by Keith Grenville, with Peter Butler, Antoinette Kellerman and André Roothman. Designed by Michael Mitchell, lighting designed by Malcolm Hurrell.

In 2011-2012 Kim Kerfoot directed a production that ran to capacity houses at the Fugard Theatre Studio (with an Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary from Gipca/Baxter Theatre Centre / Theatre Arts Admin Collective), after its initial presentation at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective. The production was presented by the Fugard Theatre’s founding producer Eric Abraham and the Fugard Theatre, featuring Bo Petersen, Malefane Mosuhli and Jeroen Kranenburg, and has been described by Athol Fugard himself as the best production of his work directed by someone other than himself. The production was designed by Guy de Lancey.

Sources

Astbury, 1979.

Various entries in the NELM catalogue re the 1972 production.

Statements theatre programme, 1997.

Review by Astrid Stark, Sunday Independent, 5 February 2012.

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