By Miranda Inganni
Inpired by a newspaper story, The Train Driver, the latest play by South Africa's preeminent playwriter, Athol Fugard, is a wonderfully non-sentimental ride through one man's harrowing trip through loss, post-traumatic stress disorder, recovery, violence and, finally, peace.
Starring Adolphus Ward and Morlan Higgins as Simon and Roelf, respectively, the play tracks itself in a desolate graveyard in a South African shantytown where the black Simon is in charge of burrying the "unnamed ones." Amongst the rabble, rather than roses, Afrikaner Roelf insists Simon assist him in the search of the black dead woman (and her baby), who has haunted him ever since the train he was conducting ran them over in her suicidal act.
Roelf is, understandably, traumatized by the event, having witnessed this dark brown-eyed woman throw herself and her young baby in front of the train that he was driving, and through the duration of the play experiences and expresses anger, frustration and finally acceptance of his participation in this horrific event. However, the guilt felt by the conducter not only works on the personal experience felt during this suicidal act of a black woman and child, but, on a far grander scale, The Train Driver is about every Afrikaner's participation, regardless of degree and intent, in South Africa's Apartheid.
Directed by Stephen Sachs, The Train Driver is an intimate portrait of grief and understanding told in the intimate setting of The Fountain Theatre. Both Ward and Higgins do a very fine job (the audience -- consisting of many high school students -- probably should have clapped a bit longer for the actors then they did) of conveying their characters' situational emotions -- and emotional situations -- with understatement and breadth of character.
The only drawback is the play was the sound effects: the carrion-eating bush dogs, gang attacks, flashbacks to the train accident and memories of childhood songs, to name a few. They were annoying and intrusive. The production did not need them.
Otherwise, The Train Driver is a moving play that touches on subjects from grief and loss to social status and the ultimate human connection of one man's, two men, story within the context of a larger South African history.
(The Train Driver runs through December 12 at The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Avel, Los Angeles, Ca. 90029. For more information: 323/663-1525; http://www.fountaintheatre.com/)
