Junkets Publisher Releases Philip Rademeyer's THE VIEW

Junkets Publisher has published Philip Rademeyer's play THE VIEW. Here is the genesis of this play: "In some dystopian future, all homosexual people have been shipped off into exile in space..."

Sound far-fetched? Listen to Pastor Charles Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in North Carolina, who told his congregation in May 2012:

'I've figured a way out. A way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers ... Build a great big large fence, 150 or 100 miles long, put all the lesbians in there. Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals. And have that fence electrified till they can't get out.'

His congregation applauded. So, maybe, not far-fetched at all!

From his hermetically sealed pod in space, the Boy looks down on a ruined, devastated Earth. He asks his last favour: an old-fashioned cassette-tape containing messages from various people and influences he has known in his life. These - and his responses to them - make up the play. THE VIEW 'is a story of loss, grief, and isolation'.

Philip Rademeyer has achieved considerable success with this play: it has received a slew of awards and nominations, culminating in winning the Doric Wilson Award for Intercultural Dialogue and the Oscar Wilde Award for New Writing at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival.
In addition, the play garnered the following: in Dublin, apart from the above wins, the play received two nominations: for Best Female Performance, and for Best Male Performance; in the 2013 Fleur du Cap Awards, three nominations: for Best Actor, for Best Supporting Actress, and for the Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for New Director; and at the 2013 Clover Aardklop Nasionale Kunstefees: two nominations, for Best Production, and for Best Actress.

Junkets Publisher's Robin Malan says of the text: 'I have to say this is one of the most "literary" and - in that sense - "literate" of the recent crop of plays. It is a highly sensitive contribution to the growing store of Queer writing in South Africa. And, as such, we welcome it.' The book is clearly a must-have for all libraries, drama and theatre departments, schools and the general reading public.

THE VIEW first saw the light of day in one of the small informal theatre venues in the city, in this case the Intimate Theatre; most recently, it has had a full-season run as part of the 9th Spring Drama Season at the Arena Theatre, Artscape, under the auspices of the New Writing Programme. In that run, BroadwayWorld reviewed the play, declaring it to be 'a thrilling and evocative experience'. THE VIEW was also one of the new South African plays featured in BroadwayWorld's 2013 South African Theatre Restrospectives, where arts publicist, Christine Skinner, named the play as one of her highlights for the year 'for its magnificent text and utterly compelling performances from Gideon Lombard and Ella Gabriel.'

This is the fourth play in the New Voices series of recent South African plays. Malan is pleased with the New Voices series. 'So far, we have published Sinethemba Twani's THE BENEFICIARY, Anele Rusi's ISYSTEM and BULLETS OVER BISHOP LAVIS, written by TV stars Christo Davids and Jody J Abrahams. These are plays that have largely emerged from small venues around town - the Studio Theatres, converted church halls and so on - and we don't want to lose those plays. We need to build up a strong library of modern, contemporary plays about modern South African people and issues.'

There is still one play to be published in the current New Voices series: Khayelihle Dom Gumede's adaptation of the Can Themba short story CREPUSCULE. 'I've tried hard to persuade him to change the name of the play version,' says Malan, 'but Dom has decided to stay with Can Themba's rather unappetising title.'
THE VIEW and other plays in the New Voices series can be ordered directly from Junkets by emailing info.junkets@iafrica.com.