Willoughby's award-winning new work for Baxter

Church Full of Light: Kereke Ya Lesedi is author and theatre-maker Guy Willoughby's prize-winning play that will run at the Baxter Theatre's Sanlam Studio from June 10 to July 3. The play won the audience vote for Best Play at the Pansa Festival Reading of New Writing in November 2003.

Church Full of Light: Kereke Ya Lesedi is about two families, one Sotho, one Jewish, and their long-buried secrets.

It is the strange tale of a domestic servant who inherits a sizeable fortune from her employer and the chain of events - traumatic, comical and even providential - that this sets in motion. Set in Johannesburg as well as the far reaches of Limpopo Province, the play tackles a host of tangled issues around identity, justice and faith in our society.

It is directed by Fred Abrahamse, award-winning director of Decadence, the original District Six, the Musical, and who also directed Guy Willoughby in his satirical revue, Major Shisstirrer. For this production Abrahamse has assembled a stellar cast: Thoko Ntshinga (of Egoli fame), who plays Miriam Mokoena, the humble domestic who plans to use her fortune to build a church in her hometown Marakiastad, which galvanizes the play; her son, Thomas, the gifted architect, is played by Dumisane-Sizwe Nebe, and Anthea Thompson plays Aliza Tarrowgate, the Toronto-based businesswoman who arrives back home to contest her late father's will. They are supported by two competing lawyers: Roger Dwyer (King Lear) as the cautious Henry Falmouth, and playwright Willoughby takes the part of the brash Jose Gonsalves.

The show opens on June 10. Performances begin at 20h15 nightly. You can book by calling the Baxter on 685-7880 or Computicket on 083 915 8000.