From October 18th to November 5th, Alberta Theatre Projects will examine South Africa in the 1960’s through the skills of the talented Meg Roe, who assumes the role of 21 different characters throughout the play. In fact, she even went to Africa to study this role.

“I don’t know anything about South Africa, and my partner and I knew we wanted to go on a trip this year. We felt it was a great opportunity to go, with a purpose, to a place I had never pictured myself going. We packed up our bags and went; it came down last minute when we suddenly got reasonably tickets and we were off.” Roe told GayCalgary.com. “We flew to Cape Town and drove across the country, making up our trip as we went along. We did lots of touristy stuff too, but we tried to talk and listen to people everywhere we went. We had a few contacts in Cape Town that lead us to a school in one of the townships, where I saw a school choir. It was an incredible experience that I don’t think a lot of Canadians get to do; it was very moving and powerful. It was great research because I didn’t know many white South Africans and no black South Africans, so it was a chance to go out and make those kinds of contacts. ”

Roe portrays Elizabeth Grace - fearless, affectionate and curious – along with 20 memorable characters from the beautiful and brutal atmosphere of Johannesburg, during apartheid.

“Lizzie’s family has black servants who live on the property and the families end up getting blended because they are so intimately connected. The story follows the two families – her white family and her black nanny’s family for three years. It then moves to the character as an adult looking back and trying to come to terms with her place in South Africa and what happened there and her responsibilities. By the end of the play, the audience pieces it all together and we walk away asking questions, rather than the character asking questions of us.”

Roe has the emotionally and physically demanding job of being the sole performer, portraying all 21 characters with no props and without ever leaving the stage. Roe, worked with accent and vocal coach Jane MacFarlane to transform herself into the various characters of different descent, age, and dialects.

“It’s insane to be 21 people, all played by one person. It is a different challenge for me because I have never done anything like this before. I don’t know how many people have because it is pretty unusual. Usually when you are building a play with a group of people you are reacting to what other people are giving you. In this one, it’s just me and I have to think about what my reaction would be, to what I just said.”

The play is written by actor/writer Pamela Gien, who was born in Johannesburg, South Africa during the height of the apartheid. The university graduate was both playwright and performer in the original production of The Syringa Tree. During its run in New York City in 2001, it won multiple awards including the prestigious OBIE award for best play, an award that recognizes achievement in off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions.

ATP is no stranger to multi-character plays. In the 2004/2005 season Stones in his Pockets and 2 Pianos, 4 Hands both featured two actors morphing into various characters of different sex, race, age and dialect. Both of those shows were highlights of the season and left the viewer in awe of the actors’ abilities. With just Roe in the spotlight, the pressure is on, but there is little doubt that the reaction will be the same – the audience will sit in awe at the transformation to and from each character, that this highly acclaimed and talented actress will do. Roe looks forward to the opportunity to tell the story.

“I’ve never experienced racism in my life ever. I’m white and from Balzac, I have no concept of it. The harder thing on a technical level is the accents; I am not familiar with them because I don’t know many people who sound like that. On the trip, I had to listen hard and close to a lot of different people to get a sense of what the rhythm is. All acting is just imagination and play. I am imagining what I would feel if I was one of these people, what might happen, and how might I react? The play is lovely, in that I don’t have to do a lot of commenting on what’s going on. I sit in the moment and the audience gets to comment on what is going on. It’s through the eyes of a six year old - she doesn’t turn and say ‘and that was racism.’ She shows us her life and the audience goes ‘that made me feel uncomfortable, I wonder why.’ It doesn’t require me to make any statements on what the racist scene was in South Africa. I just play the people and everyone can make their decisions on their own.”

Alberta Theatre Projects
The Syringa Tree
October 18th – November 5th, 2005
215 – 8 Avenue SE
Phone: (403) 294-7402
http://www.atplive.com