Weathervane Productions presents:
The Road to Mecca
Written by Athol Fugard
Directed by Timothy Near
June 4-30 at Z Below
Athol Fugard’s incandescent and thought-provoking The Road to Mecca comes to San Francisco’s Z Below. Obie Award winner Timothy Near directs this production, reuniting with Broadway actor Victor Talmadge (David Mamet’s November, The King & I, The Lion King) and award-winning actor and producer Wendy vanden Heuvel (Signature Theatre, Guthrie Theatre, Magic Theater). The powerhouse trio, who collaborated on a hit run of Fugard’s A Lesson from Aloes at Z Below in 2018, will be joined by exciting regional actress Kodi Jackman for this production.
Set in a small South African town, The Road to Mecca introduces eccentric aging widow Miss Helen (based on artist Helen Martins), who fills her house and garden with sculptures and statues that face Mecca, transforming her world into a magical paradise and testament to artistic freedom in the midst of repression and political turbulence. A struggle ensues as a young schoolteacher and social worker advocates for the struggling artist, while her conservative pastor insists that Miss Helen is declining and should be moved. Known for his politically charged work opposing Apartheid, internationally-acclaimed South African playwright, director, actor, and novelist Athol Fugard was deemed "a rare playwright, who could be a primary candidate for either the Nobel Prize in Literature or the Nobel Peace Prize" by The New Yorker. The Road to Mecca was initially presented Off-Broadway where it won a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was adapted into a film starring Fugard alongside Yvonne Bryceland, and Kathy Bates. Its Broadway premiere in 2011 was lauded as a “powerful” (The New York Times) work that “glows with a rare luminosity and intensity…eloquent and transforming” (The Christian Science Monitor).
Show Schedule
Previews: Sun 6/4 6pm, Tues 6/6 7:30pm, Wed 6/7 7:30pm
Opening Night: Thurs 6/8 7:30pm
Run of Show: 6/9 - 6/30
Wed, 7:30pm
Thurs, 7:30pm
Fri, 7:30pm
Sat, 7:30pm
Sun, 2pm
The Sunday, June 11 show features a post-show talkback by Teach with Africa’s Flora Mugambi-Mutunga, see below for details.
This show runs approximately two hours and 30 minutes and will have one intermission.
Cast
Victor Talmadge
Wendy vanden Heuvel
Kodi Jackman
Creative/Production Team
Director: Timothy Near
Scenic Designer: Erik Flatmo
Costume Designer: Meg Neville
Lighting Designer: Kurt Landisman
Sound Designer: Jake Rodriguez
Casting Director: Amy Potozkin
Properties and Set Decoration: Leah Hammond
Dramaturg: Kellen Hoxworth
Production Stage Manager: Christina Hogan
Assistant Stage Manager: Enkidu Khan
Production Manager: David Robertson
Executive Producer: Kendra Bator and Tom Casserly
Producing Associates: Tess Capern
Artwork: Caspar Newbolt
Publicity and Marketing: Lauren Goldfarb, Carla Befera & Co.
Post Show Talkback - Sunday 6/11
Teach with Africa’s Flora Mugambi-Mutunga
Teach With Africa is a non-profit organization empowering students and teachers in a reciprocal exchange of teaching and learning in Africa and the United States. Teach With Africa seeks to reduce the embedded inequities in our societies by working to provide access to quality education in order to transform children’s lives, schools, and communities. Teach With Africa provides high-quality professional development for teachers and teachers-in-training, focusing on instructional programs and educational leadership initiatives through programs in South Africa and the U.S. Since 2008, we have engaged more than 4,000 teachers and served more than 150,000 children, increasing our scope of service year after year. Click to learn more.
