Theater Review: The Road to Mecca

Physical, Emotional Freedoms Can Be Very Different Things

By Lauren Yarger

The stunning pinks, oranges and purples that light up the walls and ceiling of the otherwise small and uninteresting dwelling are a sharp contract to their artist creator: an insecure, grandmotherly loner who just wants to stay in Mecca. But then 1974 South Africa is a world of contradictions.

For Africaner Miss Helen (Rosemary Harris), Mecca is the house where she lived with her late husband in the Karoo village of New Bethesda, South Africa, and where her odd sculptures (unseen) adorn the property. Inside, the colors and light reflected by candles, glitter and mirrors are the magical expression of her true self. (The terrific set is by Michael Yeargan.)

The villagers mostly have put up with her quirks over the years. Sometimes they throw rocks at her statues of owls and other things -- He's pulling up his trousers, not taking them down, she asserts -- but mostly they have ignored her. A series of accidents which have left Helen's hands burned, however, might rob her of her freedom and the sanctuary of her home crammed with the beloved odds and ends she has collected throughout her life.

Minister Marius Byleveld (Jim Dale) and a 17-year-old black woman who visits to avoid the abuse of a drunken husband are the only people Helen sees regularly at her home. Marius pressures Helen to sign papers giving up her home and to relocate to a nice room with space for a few of her possessions that has become available at a retirement home run by the church. Helen's resistance is waning until the unexpected arrival of good friend Elsa Barlow (Carla Gugino).

Elsa isn't afraid of stirring up a little trouble. After all, she has been reprimanded for having her students in an  all-black school in Capetown write essays about racial inequality. She always has been a lifeline to the widowed artist and when she receives an alarming letter from Helen about the turn of events in her life, she drops everything to drive 12 hours down the road to Mecca and help her friend.

After catching up on all the latest village gossip, Elsa privately encourages Helen to stand up to Marius. When he arrives, and almost competes for Helen's loyalty and friendship, Elsa oddly won't take the role of Helen's champion despite the artist's pleas for help. Instead, she urges her friend to sign the papers if she can't take a stand on her own.

It's all a little confusing, perhaps because the script isn't up to par with most of Athold Fugard's other tales of South Africa under Apartheid, despite the fact that this Roundabout Theatre Company production is directed by Gordon Edelstein, who has helmed premieres of the playwright's works (Coming Home and Have You Seen Us?), as well as The Train Driver at Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT where he is artistic director. The first act is very slow moving, bogged down with long stretches of monologue. Dale's arrival, and his sharp, subtle humor, is a welcome addition in the second act, though it meanders on with multiple false endings to bring the complete run time to two and a half hours.

Ultimately it is a story of how someone can be in prison, even if he or she is free. The 17-year-old black girl's plight as well as a young black woman and her baby who haunt Elsa are reminders of the oppression that permeated 1974 Sounth Africa. Costumes are by Susan Hilferty and John Gromada provides original music and sound design.

The Road to Mecca runs through March 4 at the American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42nd St., NYC. For tickets, call 212-719-1300 or visit www.roundabouttheatre.org.

Christians might also like to know:

-- Language

-- God's name taken in vain.