'Syringa Tree' finds pathos in South Africa's racial divide

In 2000 The Syringa Tree, written and performed by South African writer/performer Pamela Gien, appeared off-Broadway after a successful run in Seattle. At first it didn't draw audiences - at one performance, according to the New York Times, there were 17 people in the audience. But word spread about Gien's haunting, lyrical play based on her experiences growing up in her racially divided homeland, and the play became a favorite with critics and audiences, winning Gien an Obie Award for Best Play.

Currently Gien's play closes Trinity Rep's 2009-2010 season in a version that expands upon Gien's solo script with four actresses playing 24 characters. The production runs through May 30, 2010.

Playwright Gien tells an epic political story through the eyes of Elizabeth - a little girl born into the fractious world of South African politics. Gien, according to the theater's press release, paints an evocative portrait of the abiding love between two families - one black, one white. History's shocking events unravel, mingled with the resonant rites of passage shared by all families.

"... an indisputable power accrues in the show," wrote Bruce Weber in the New York Times, "amplified by its credibility as history and in the virtuosic turn required of the actor. The final scene, which depicts Elizabeth's return to her homeland as an adult and her reunion with the black woman who had been her beloved caretaker until cruel events conspired to separate them, leaves many in tears."

In addition to winning the OBIE Award for Best Play, Gien was honored with the Drama Desk Award for Best Solo Performance, Outer Circle Critics Award, Drama League Honor, and received a John Gassner Playwriting Award nomination for The Syringa Tree. She performed the play at London's Royal National Theatre, in America, Canada, and her native South Africa.

In the expanded Trinity version, Anne Scurria (Shapeshifter, Some Things are Private) plays the tale's narrator, Elizabeth, while resident acting company members Barbara Meek and Rachael Warren, along with Brown/Trinity Rep MFA student Tiffany Nichole Greene '11 portray the additional characters that span the play's timeline of four generations.

"This story makes it all very personal and all very human," explains Director Laura Kepley (Shapeshifter, Boots on the Ground). "(The Syringa Tree) is one woman's journey of coming to terms with the truth and reconciling herself with where she came from."

The play's characters range from young, old, male, female, Sotho, Afrikaans, Zulu, English South American, Xhosa, American, Catholic, Jewish.

"The roles are reflective of the diversity that is in South Africa," Kepley said.

While the play was initially done by Gien (and other actresses) as a solo piece, the Trinity is using an authorized version that expands the cast to four actresses.

"In our production, we have an ensemble of three women who appear to Elizabeth to help carry her, guide her, and give her strength as she struggles to make sense of her world. She in turn also carries them - their memory and their legacy," Kepley noted.

Working with the cast has been "an utter delight," Kepley said. "I think because the play handles complex topics in a humane way, all of us have bonded over the script. It's wonderful when a company of women get to tell a story that was written by a woman."

The interracial cast has also had the opportunity to engage in discussions about life in South Africa under Apartheid.

"We have wonderful conversations when we compare South Africa to America and making those connections. Each country has a big curiosity about the other country and certainly the civil rights movement in the United States influenced and affected the struggle to end Apartheid in South Africa," Kepley added.

The Syringa Tree runs through May 30, 2010 in the Dowling Theatre, 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI. For more information visit the Trinity Repertory Company website.