Long ‘Road’ to Social Equity

It has taken some time for Athol Fugard’s “The Road to Mecca,” written more than 10 years ago, to make the pilgrimage to this Los Angeles premiere at the Fountain Theatre.

Finely crafted and beautifully performed, the production features wonderfully incisive direction by Stephen Sachs. Yet in purely dramatic terms, Fugard’s work is subtle to the point of the innocuous, so initially devoid of exposition and background that it takes awhile to develop sufficient empathy for the characters. Have patience. Catharsis is just around the bend in this “Road.”

Set in South Africa in 1974, the play is loosely based on an actual person, Miss Helen, a local eccentric in the small village of New Bethesda whom Fugard knew peripherally.

In Fugard’s drama, Miss Helen (Priscilla Pointer) dangerously has rankled the patriarchal hierarchy of her small town. Instead of behaving with the decorum befitting an elderly widow, she has converted her home into a glittering oasis of mirrors, colored glass and looming, fantastical statuary.

Her fellow townspeople, including local minister Marius Byleveld (Robert Symonds), have reacted with suspicion and horror to her creations. As a result, Marius is trying to force Miss Helen into an old-age home. Miss Helen has summoned her young friend Elsa Barlow (Jacqueline Schultz) from Capetown to help--but Elsa is coping with a crushing emotional crisis that threatens her very humanity.

As Fugard illustrates, self-expression, at least in the remote village of New Bethesda, is a treacherous pursuit for any except those white males in the entrenched power structure. Ironically, that status quo will shortly undergo a radical change--but Fugard wisely keeps the apartheid controversy to a distant, thunderous murmur.

New Bethesda is out of time, a Brigadoon-like throwback where women flouting the proprieties are viewed as mad witches. Yet for all her perceived effrontery, Miss Helen is stymied by the bred-in-the-bone passivity of her upbringing, and must overcome her lifelong habit of acquiescence if she is to survive as a woman and artist.

The actors hail from the Fountain’s 1997 hit, “Fighting Over Beverley.” Although the South African accents are hit-or-miss, the performances are otherwise superlative. Husband and wife in real life, Pointer and Symonds are mature theatrical veterans at the pinnacle of their powers. Schultz displays great range as a woman fighting the tide of social inequity and her own rising bitterness.

John Patrick’s detailed set has been exquisitely festooned by eileen’s Prop & Set Dressing Shop. Kathi O’Donohue’s lighting captures the candle-lit magic of Miss Helen’s sanctuary. Peter Stenshoel’s sound and Shon Le Blanc’s costumes are essential parts of the technically impressive whole.

BE THERE

“The Road to Mecca,” Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Matinees this Sunday and March 19, 3 p.m. $18 to $22. (323) 663-1525. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.