Amy Irving Went to N.Y. Seeking ‘Mecca’

Amy Irving came to New York from Los Angeles for only three hours just to see South African playwright Athol Fugard.

The thoughtful, serious actress felt she had to appear in Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca,” a three-character play about an eccentric artist facing the loss of her independence.

In the drama, an older woman, played by Yvonne Bryceland, is the object of a dispute. An Afrikaner minister, portrayed by Fugard himself, wants to put the woman in a nursing home, an action opposed by a feisty, angry teacher. That was the role Irving wanted to play.

The playwright and the actress, who had never met, talked about the play and its characters and briefly acted out several scenes.

“I was flying when I left the place,” Irving said the other day. “It was a thrilling experience. Athol has so much energy. By the time I left the audition, I just said, ‘So when do we start working?’ ” She got the part.

For “A Road to Mecca,” now playing at off-Broadway’s Promenade Theater, its journey to New York wasn’t accomplished so quickly. The play’s premiere took place at the Yale Repertory Theater in Connecticut in 1984. The following year there was a production in London by the National Theater.

But a New York production was stymied by casting problems, particularly over whether Bryceland, a South African, should be allowed to appear here. Actors Equity felt the role should be played by an American actress.

Bryceland finally did appear on an American stage nearly a year ago when “The Road to Mecca” was mounted at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. in Charleston, S.C. Irving was in none of those productions.

“That was part of the appeal to me, the challenge,” she said. “Working in a three-character play in a situation where the others have pretty much found their characters.”

But she discovered during rehearsals that there were very few moments when she was aware that Fugard and Bryceland had done the play before.

“That’s because they have a new set to work on and there’s completely different blocking,” Miss Irving says. “So it is new for them as well, and besides, they are always finding new values in the play.”

The actress also had the pleasure of being directed by the man who wrote the words. “It’s easier being directed by the author because so often you’re not quite sure what the writer meant,” she says. “With this production, you can just turn to the director and say, ‘What did the writer mean?”’