Planet Perth

full-length comedy by Paul Slabolepszy (1998).

Performance history in South Africa

Premièred at the Agfa Theatre on the Square in Sandton, directed by Slabolepszy, with Fiona Ramsay, Michael Richard and Sean Taylor, in May 1998. The same production was staged at the Hilton Arts Festival in September 1998 and the Market Theatre.

Subject

Three privileged middle-aged individuals have to deal with change on multiple levels, from midlife crisis to socio-political transformation. While the married couple are packing to escape the new South Africa by emigrating to Australia, their best friend is coming to terms with his recent divorce and resultant middle-age bachelorship. In describing his play as “an adult escapist comedy” Slabolepszy alluded to the perceived threat experienced by middle-aged, typically middle-class white South Africans, generally in terms of mid-life disillusionment, but more specifically in terms of social insecurity and even physical risk in mid-1990s South Africa. The focus is on the impulse to escape problematic situations rather than dealing with them and the subject is the privileged white middle-class.

Sources

Ruphin Coudyzer. 2023. Annotated list of his photographs of Market Theatre productions. (Provided by Coudyzer)

[Van Heerden (2008)][1]. p 157.

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