‘Boesman and Lena’ Theater Review: Athol Fugard’s Searing Look at Apartheid-Era South Africa Revisited
In director Yaël Farber's deliberately discomfiting new revival, the 1969 drama plays less as history than as allegory
Thom Geier | February 25, 2019 @ 6:00 PM
It’s been 50 years since Athol Fugard first staged “Boesman and Lena,” his searing look at a “colored” man and woman in apartheid-era South Africa who have been forcibly evicted from their shanty home, for the umpteenth time. In director Yaël Farber’s deliberately discomfiting new revival, which opened Monday at Off Broadway’s Signature Theatre, the drama plays less as history than as allegory.
Indeed, Farber’s production calls to mind Samuel Beckett, both in its embrace of poetical abstraction and in its physical look. Susan Hilferty‘s set design, with its dirt-strewn floor and barren tree stage right, could easily hold a production of “Waiting for Godot.”
But Fugard’s play is deadly serious — there is none of the clowning or slapstick of “Godot” — and Farber takes a similarly sober approach to the material: Sahr Ngaujah’s Boesman and Zainab Jah’s Lena enter the theater through the audience, weighed down by boxes and sacks and pans representing all the possessions they managed to take with them, until they deposit themselves in the barren mudflats of the stage.
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Like Vladimir and Estragon, they are given to bickering — after many years together, and shared tragedies like lost children, they know what buttons to push with each other.
But there is a darker edge here, as Fugard does not depict his title characters as saintly victims of an unjust system. We learn early on that Boesman regularly beats Lena — we see her bruises — and that she too is not above provoking his jealousy and rages in ways that put him in jeopardy in a racist society.
Like many a survivor of domestic violence, she feels both bound to her oppressor and wanting to challenge him. As they are setting up camp, Lena calls over an older black tribesman (Thomas Silcott), whose Xhosa-language speeches she doesn’t even understand — and invites him to stay with them, offering her own share of food.
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Jah and Ngaujah are fully committed to these roles, and they don’t let anyone off the hook — not each other and not the audience, whom they stare down at several points in the intermissionless production, even during the curtain call.
At one point, Lena speaks of a dog she once had. “I called him Dog,” she says, “another pair of eyes, something to see you.” The old tribesman plays a similar role for her — as do we in the audience. It’s as if she needs someone to bear witness, to validate her identity.
“Boesman and Lena” initially may have been staged as an indictment of South Africa’s treatment of its nonwhite citizens. But over time, it has grown into a searing look at how institutional racism can sour our very humanity.
Broadway's 10 Top-Grossing Non-Musical Plays of All Time, From 'War Horse' to 'Harry Potter' (Photos)
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
Broadway isn't just for musicals. Here are the all-time top-grossing straight plays on the Great White Way, according to grosses compiled by the Broadway League up to Dec. 30, 2018. (These figures aren't adjusted for inflation, so recent hits at current sky-high ticket prices have a definite advantage.)
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
10. "The Tale of the Allergist's Wife" (2000-02)
Total gross: $29,310,727
Charles Busch's play about an Upper West Side matron's mid-life crisis played for nearly two years in a production starring Linda Lavin, Michelle Lee and Tony Roberts.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
9. "700 Sundays" (2004-05; 2013-14)
Total gross: $32,029,177
Billy Crystal's autobiographical one-man show found favor in two separate runs on Broadway nearly a decade apart.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
8. "August: Osage County" (2007-09)
Total gross: $32,835,606
Tracy Letts' Pulitzer-winning drama became a huge hit on stage without any big stars -- and then a 2013 movie starring with Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
7. "Proof" (2000-03)
Total gross: $32,896,994
David Auburn's drama about a woman with a troubled legacy of both mental illness and genius-level math skills earned multiple Tony Awards, including for star Mary-Louise Parker.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
6. "The Play That Goes Wrong" (2017-)
Total gross: $33,844,488* (as of Dec. 30, 2018)
This farce about an amateur theater company's mishap-prone production of a mystery play is another London import that has found popularity on this side of the Atlantic.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
5. "God of Carnage" (2009-10)
Total gross: $37,345,584
Yasmina Reza's barnstorming dramedy about two dueling couples earned the Tony for Best Drama -- as well as nominations for James Gandolfini, Jeff Daniels, Marcia Gay Harden and Hope Davis.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
4. "It's Only a Play" (2014-15)
Total gross: $37,500,966
Terrence McNally's backstage comedy was a huge hit thanks to the Broadway reteaming of Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane, stars of the Tony-winning musical "The Producers" a decade before.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
3. "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (2014-16)
Total gross: $68,321,435
Another London import, Simon Stephens' adaptation of Mark Haddon's YA novel follows an autistic boy on a quest for the killer of his neighbor's dog.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
2. "War Horse" (2011-13)
Total gross: $74,975,253
Michael Morpurgo's YA novel about a British boy's search for his horse in World War I inspired both this epic play, complete with life-size puppets, and Steven Spielberg's 2011 film.
You don’t need an orchestra — or songs — to draw audiences
1. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two" (2018 - )
Total gross: $$84,601,314* (as of Dec. 30, 2018)
The stage sequel to J.K. Rowling's saga about the now-grown boy wizard has extra advantages -- since it's a two-night (and two-ticket) epic that plays in a musical-sized auditorium to diehard Potterheads.