In the Continuum to Return to South Africa in July

By popular demand, Primary Stages, in association with the Perry Street Theatre, Patrick Blake, Cheryl Wiesenfeld, and Richard Jordan, and under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, have announced that the hit award-winning play, In The Continuum, written and performed by Danai Gurira and Nikkole Salter, with direction by Robert O'Hara, returns to South Africa in July 2007 following an acclaimed international and U.S. tour that launched in Harare, Zimbabwe in April 2006. 

The OBIE Award-winning play, In the Continuum, received its world premiere at Primary Stages in September 2005 followed by a successful Off-Broadway transfer that played the Perry Street Theatre.

The first stop on this return engagement to South Africa are performances at two arts festivals in the Eastern Cape region of South Africa:  the South African National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (July 1-7) and the National Schools Festival  (July 9-13), both supported by the Department of Arts & Culture (Eastern Cape provincial government).

Additional South African dates include performances in Cape Town, and Mafikeng in the North West province.  Workshops are scheduled to take place in Mmabana Cultural Centre (North West province) under the auspices of the North West provincial government. 

In Pretoria, performances are scheduled at the University of Pretoria, Witbank Arts Centre, and the University of Limpopo, a disadvantaged school in rural South Africa that rarely has the opportunity of viewing international performances or events.  The final stop is the Women's Festival in Durban at the end of this special South African return engagement.

In The Continuum "dramatizes the devastating problem of AIDS among African and African-American women – a timely topic and an egregiously overlooked problem that is only now getting the attention of the international media.  Living worlds apart in South Central, L.A. and Harare, Zimbabwe, two young women experience a kaleidoscopic weekend of darkly comic life changing revelations. With the two playwright/actors playing dozens of roles, In The Continuum envelopes the audience in its story of parallel denials and self-discoveries," state press materials.

In The Continuum received its world premiere in September 2005 at Primary Stages in New York City.  It subsequently moved to the Perry Street Theatre in November 2005, where  it  was  produced  by  Primary  Stages  in  association  with  The  Perry  Street  Theatre, Patrick Blake, and Cheryl Wiesenfeld. 

In The Continuum began its acclaimed international tour in Harare, Zimbabwe at the International Festival of the Arts in April 2006 and went on to perform in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, followed by the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland.  The tour resumed upon returning to the U.S. in the fall of 2006 and has played the Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington, DC), Cincinnati Playhouse, Center Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre (Los Angeles), Yale Repertory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.

Visit www.primarystages.com for more on Primary Stages.

Photo of Nikkole Salter and Danai Gurira by James Leynse