Cape theatre pick: October 28 2011

After an absence from the South African stage of 35 years, Dame Janet Suzman has returned to star in Solomon and Marion.

Playwright and director Lara Foot says she wrote the play with Suzman in mind.

Suzman’s co-star is 25-year-old Khayalethu Anthony, who makes his mainstream theatre debut with this production. In the play, two very different characters from opposite spectrums of the South African context, an ageing and heart-broken English-speaking white woman and a young black man, each carrying narratives of significant loss, are thrown together by extraordinary circumstances. They come face to face with their own and each other’s fears and culpability, and gradually their longing turns to empathy and ultimately the revelation of truth.

Golden Arrow Studio, Baxter Theatre, Main Road, Rosebank, until November 26. Book at Computicket. Tel: 021 685 7880. Website: www.baxter.co.za.