Word: elsas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Unlike many of Fugard's other works, in which more prominent racial themes articulate the concerns of a generation of South Africans, The Road To Mecca revolves primarily around the friendship between Helen, an older Afrikaaner woman, and Elsa, a young English-speaking white South African. While there is a subtext of racial awareness in the form of Elsa's activism, this play is really the story of a special friendship between women as they discover the importance of living their lives as they will them to be, and learn how to take on the courage and responsibility...
Helen (Sun) and Elsa (Poreba) have known each other for fifteen years, since Elsa was a teenager. Helen is an artist who creates animals and fantastical creatures from scraps and junk in her front yard, which have earned her the distrust and animosity of her neighbors, in addition to the love and respect of a few good friends like Elsa and the toleration of her minister, Marius Byleveld (Artie Wu). Now a schoolteacher in Capetown, Elsa has driven for ten hours in response to a desperate letter from Helen, who is trying to stop the church council from putting...
Shaky South African accents aside (they might better have been left out altogether), both Poreba and Sun give inspired performances. As Elsa, Poreba sharply vents her anger and frustration with the world with convincing exhaustion, while Helen's quiet, troubled presence spreads gradually around them in slow, careful gestures. While Poreba's strength lies in her moving, often powerful, expression, Sun's lies in her understated charm and ability to command the scene when necessary. Artie Wu, the third and final member of the cast, does a very good job with a much smaller role as the local minister, successfully...
...Elsa Wasserman, headmaster of Chelsea High School, says she is seeing a trend of progress in the new partnership...
Though life is more difficult than ever, the Vaktins still trust that the future will bring better times. For now, their children have enough to eat, their flat is cozy, and they have Elsa, an Alsatian, to keep the family smiling with her playful tricks and antics. "We can't complain," says Nadezhda. "But we hope things will get better." That is still mostly just a dream...