UCT alumni in premier of The Father

Four UCT alumni are set to appear in Florian Zeller's Tony and Olivier award-winning Broadway and West End hit, The Father.

Emily Child, Amy Louise Wilson, Anthea Thompson and Nicholas Pauling will appear in this esteemed production as it is staged in South Africa for the first time. The Father will be premiered at the Fugard Theatre on 8 November.

All have appeared in a number of award-winning theatre, film and television productions since graduating from UCT. They appear now, under the direction of Greg Karvellas, in a celebrated South African cast, including acting legend Marius Weyers and Brent Palmer.

With accolades in abundance and five-star reviews across the board, The Father is praised for its honest study of dementia. Comedic, tragic and moving, the show moves through the many moments of lives affected by this disease.

“The brilliance of Florian Zeller's play, translated from the French by Christopher Hampton, is that it doesn't just show us the impact of dementia, it uses the nature of theatre to put us in the same boat as André,” according to the London Financial Times.

The Father explores the mental landscape of André (Weyers), a retired dancer who is residing with his grown-up daughter and her husband. Or is he in fact a retired engineer and Anne is only visiting him? Who are the strangers entering his room? Where could he have left his watch?

“Dementia is a disease that many can relate to,” says Daniel Galloway, the executive director of the Fugard Theatre. “We may have experiences of living through it with loved ones, or faced the real and terrifying thought that this degenerative disease of the brain is not selective of circumstance and can affect any of us. We have no control over it, no matter who we are. The Father is a very poignant exploration of the frailty of the human mind.”

The Father will run at the Fugard Studio Theatre from 8 November to 3 December 2016 with performances from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 20:00 and matinee performances at 16:00 on Saturdays.

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