A Powerful 'Saturday Night at the Palace'

REVIEW CONTRIBUTED BY:  Scott Mauro

Saturday Night at the Palace, by Paul Slabolepszy, was first done six years ago by the Furious Theatre Company and won two NAACP Theatre Awards.  Directed by Dámaso Rodriguez, the cast included Sean Blakemore, Shawn Lee and Eric Pargac.  All four have reunited for its return engagement currently playing at the newly named Carrie Hamilton Theatre at the Pasadena Playhouse.

This powerful play, brilliantly directed by Rodriquez, takes place in South Africa, seven years before the official end of Apartheid.  It's 2am in the morning on the outskirts of Johannesburg.  A Zulu waiter, named September, is closing the roadside hamburger stand he manages so he can go visit his family whom he hasn't seen for 2 years.  Enter two white men, stranded at the burger joint when their motorcycle breaks down.  It's clear from the beginning that as the tension builds, these three characters are on their way to a harrowing finale. 

The vulnerable black man becomes the object of the men's broken dreams and racial hatred.  The play is mostly in English, but the characters also speak Afrikans and Zulu, which take a little getting used to, at first.

Blakemore gives September the perfect balance of frustration and dignity of a black man living in a country of racial strife.  Lee is equally good as Vince, the white, would-be soccer player, who is always looking for trouble.  Every aspect of this physical performance rings true. A crude, raging bully, he's the play's most despicable character.   Pargac plays Forsie, his ineffectual roommate, whose sense of decency evaporates once the trouble starts. 

Saturday Night at the Palace is without a doubt the most disturbing play I have seen this year proving the ugliness of racism is as much an issue today as it was when this play first premiered.

The play runs through May 31 at the home of Furious Theatre Company, the Pasadena Playhouse Carrie Hamilton Theatre (formerly the Balcony Theatre), 39 S. El Molino Ave. in Pasadena. Tickets can be purchased online at www.furioustheatre.org or www.tix.com or by calling 800-595-4849.

Photo by Anthony Masters.  (1) Eric Pargac and Shawn Lee.

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