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Cue Sheet
by James Reel
"...a play I highly recommend."
On a farm outside Johannesburg, South Africa, there lives a little girl named Elizabeth Grace. She spends so much time in the big, fragrant syringa tree on the property that her nanny, a patient Xhosa woman named Salamina, calls the girl Lizzie Monkey. The syringa tree is a place of small wonders, as well as a hideout and a refuge--not only for Lizzie, but for her Xhosa and Zulu neighbors trying to avoid brutal encounters with the white authorities.
The Syringa Tree is also a play by the South African-born playwright and actress Pamela Gien. It involves 24 characters--white and black, young and old, male and female--all played by a single performer. That's Patagonia resident Belinda Torrey, in a fine production now on stage at Beowulf Alley Theatre.
You’ll find the full review here.
