Slabolepszy's ‘Fordsburg’s Finest’ at Theatre On The Bay

Paul Slabolepszy, Chi Mhende and Bobby Heaney.

Paul Slabolepszy, Chi Mhende and Bobby Heaney.

Published Aug 3, 2022

Share

Fordsburg’s Finest is a striking play about two people whom, having long walked on firm ground, now find that they cannot take its firmness for granted.

Starring Paul Slabolepszy (Saturday Night At The Palace, The Return Of Elvis Du Pisanie, Planet Mirth, Heal Against The Head) and Chi Mhende (Generations).

In his uplifting play, Fordsburg’s Finest, Slabolepszy depicts an empowered and impassioned woman as the focus of his tale, while taking the audience on a nostalgic journey of recognition, sensitivity and insight relating to the return of Thandi (Chi Mhende), from an American exile to South Africa.

She finds the site of the house where she was born and it is now a rundown used car sales lot owned and occupied by a Afrikaner ex-policeman (Paul Slabolepszy), whose son died in the border war, whose wife left him, and who has learnt to hide his pain behind the mask of a used car salesman.

The encounter between these two damaged individuals provides the situation for painful self-discovery, for an exploration of the tensions existing in the new South African condition, and ultimately it leads to a kind of reconciliation.

Paul Slabolepszy is a well-known, award-winning South African playwright who holds the ability to reflect an authentic South African landscape, with its turbulent political background, vibrant cultures and inhabitants, and to evoke empathy for all of his diverse characters.

Directed by Bobby Heaney, written by Paul Slabolepszy.

Age restriction: PG13

Duration: Approx' 85 minutes, no interval.

Bookings now open.

Tickets are now available through Computicket or by calling the Theatre on the Bay box-office: (021) 438-3300