Two to Tango
Two to Tango is a play by Mike van Graan ().
Contents
The original text
A political satire about a superficially liberal white couple negotiating post-apartheid challenges, it is described by the author as "a comedy drama about a forty-something, white, superficially liberal, heterosexual couple with two teenage daughters living in, and coming to terms with, post-apartheid South Africa, and more specifically in Cape Town with its historical race divisions" (Mike van Graan Website[1]).
At the obvious level, since the play is about the give and take of relationships, the title is an abbreviation of the platitude “it takes two to tango”. At another level, marriage is a metaphor for South African society as a whole, implying that in order for it work, it requires commitment, compromise and cooperation from all who live in it.. The two-hander was submitted to the 2005 NLDTF/PANSA Festival of Reading of New Writing (Comedy) where it was a finalist, and subsequently premiered at the Liberty Theatre on the Square in April 2006
Translations and adaptations
In 2019 an updated version, set a decade later, was created for performance by the Drama Factory, Somerset West,
Performance history in South Africa
2006: Opened at the Liberty Theatre on the Square in April
2019: Performed in the updated version at the Drama Factory, Somerset West, directed by Ira Blanckenberg, with Paul du Toit and Sue Diepeveen.
Sources
The Drama Factory <info@thedramafactory.co.za>
Go to ESAT Bibliography
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