Award-winning gay play tackles loss, grief, isolation

The play stars Gideon Lombard as Boy, and Ella Gabriel as Actor.

“A young man sits alone in a prison cell in space, looking down at a ruined earth and dreaming of being rescued,” said theatre spokesperson Robert Motseko.

“Upon his final request, a gatekeeper delivers a video containing interviews with various people from his life, each relating their opinions and feelings about the young man, his homosexuality, and the state of the world.”

Each of those characters is played by Gabriel, from the driver who brought the young man to this place of isolation, to his parents struggling to accept the loss of their son.

“The View illuminates the boy’s life and relationships, and also reveals the reason for his incarceration,” he said.

According to Motseko, the play was inspired by an American pastor’s comments that gays and lesbians should be contained in isolated enclosures and, ultimately, killed off.

“[The play] tenderly deals with notions of loss, memory and hope,” he said.

“Beyond its politics, it is simply a very human story of a young man brutally separated from his loved ones, purely because of who he is. It is a story of loss, grief and isolation – feelings we can all identify with.”

The production has been met with critical recognition and won numerous awards, including the Oscar Wilde Award for Best New Writing and the Doric Wilson Intercultural Dialogue Award.

The View was nominated for Best Male Performance and Best Female Performance at the International Dublin Gay Festival in May 2013.

It also received three Fleur du Cap nominations for best actor, best supporting actress and new director.

The project was made possible by a grant from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund.

The View will run from 13 until 29 June at the Barney Simon Theatre at the Market Theatre, 56 Margaret Mcingana Street, Newtown.

Details: 011 832 1641; www.markettheatre.co.za