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Statements after an Arrest Under the Immorality Act |
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Author: Athol Fugard
Reviewer: David Roberts for Theatre Reviews Limited |
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Noel Arthur and Megan Leigh move around the Schaeberle Studio Theatre, a black box performance space at Pace University, with the kind of craft and energy missing in far too many Broadway productions in Manhattan. Their participation in this Athol Fugard revival could easily be among the best offerings at this year's New York International Fringe Festival. If my readers miss any of the remaining performances, it is not because I didn't warn them to purchase tickets and attend!
The Man and The Woman these two fine actors portray meet secretly in the library where The Woman works to share their love, their hope, and even their fear. One of the librarian's (The Woman) neighbors suspects something when she observes The Man, who is black, leaving the library and the librarian (who is white) with his own key to lock up. This "well-meaning" neighbor (are all racist, sexist, and homophobic people "well-meaning?") reports her concern to the police who take secret photos from the informant's yard and eventually break in and arrest the couple based on the photos.
  
All of the activity in the performance takes place in the library itself where the nude lovers expose not only their bodies but also their deepest yearnings for realized selfhood and emotional freedom. The Man is married and unhappy in that marriage. The Woman is self-doubting and deeply in search of deep, meaningful love. Whatever it is they are seeking has, in The Man's words, "No vestige of a beginning and no prospect of an end."
Their movement toward each other (and their inner needs), their movement away from each other (to protect and shield) is skillfully directed by Peter Wallace. The audience is painfully aware that although all of them that found each other "must love" the other and although "in every corner of [their] beings there is a little [of each others' lives]," their relationship cannot survive.
The self-doubt and the controlling power of the government prevail and the audience watches as the police officer interrogates them and they answer both directly and though internal monologues. Their fear of being discovered transcends their desire and longing for intimacy and release from internal pain.
The Woman's fear of "seeing and being seen" turns out to be a valid fear. The fear is not of The Man, but of the oppressive South African government of the time of the writing of "Statements" that thrived on spying, uncovering, meddling, prying, anything to make a "nightmare world" out of the lives of black South Africans and anyone who would attempt to support, mingle with, or love them.
And this is the fear we all have at, least all of us who know we have something "to hide." This is the fear persons of color still have in more than one place on this fragile earth. This is the fear many women have living in abusive relationships. This is the fear gay and lesbian people have in their jobs and in their professional relationships. The fear all have when oppressive governments gain control over citizens' lives worldwide.
Prospective chief executive officers of nations ask their constituents, "Are you better off now than you were a year ago?" Someone should be asking, "Are your civil liberties as secure as they were a year ago?" Go see "Statements" and then go home and answer the question with fear and trembling.
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By Athol Fugard. Directed by Peter Wallace. Lighting consultant, Trui Malten; video consultant, John Jannone; stage manager, Michelle Salerno. Presented by FringeNYC and Equal and Opposite Productions (Teresa Hartmann) at The Schaeberle Studio Theatre at Pace University, 41 Park Row, 10th Floor, in Manhattan. Performance schedule: Saturday August 14 at 2:45 p.m.; Sunday August 15 at 6:30 p.m.; Friday August 20 at 9:30 p.m.; Tuesday August 24 at 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday August 28 at 2:30 p.m.
With: Noel Arthur (Man); Bob Jaffe (Police Officer); and Megan Leigh (Woman).
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