Out of Bounds

One-man play by Rajesh Gopie, 1999.

Subject

Using 28 different characters, Gopie, often humorously, tells the story of Lal Lachund, a young Indian man growing up in 1980s apartheid South Africa, who lives with his parents and extended family in a cramped house in Inanda, and longs for a house where he has his own room, instead of one which is shared with numerous family members.

Performance history

First performed at the Market Theatre in 1999, with Rajesh Gopie and directed by Tina Johnson, lighting by Glen Olsen. The same production was subsequently staged in the UK, across Europe, in India, in the USA, throughout South Africa, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2003, the Old World Theatre Festival in The Habitat Centre in New Delhi, India in 2009, the Sibaya Casino’s iZulu Theatre in 2012, the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College, Los Angeles USA in 2013, amongst others.

Won a Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Indigenous Script in 2001.

Out of Bounds made a strong contribution to the social debate in the New South Africa of the 1990s - it generated so much interest that President Nelson Mandela himself requested a private performance.