The Captain's Tiger, South African playwright Athol Fugard's autobiographical story of a young writer, begins previews Dec. 17. Fugard stars and co-directs at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage II. The drama is subtitled "a Memoir for the Stage."
The staging's official opening is Jan. 12, 1999, with no official closing announced. Fugard's co-director and designer (sets and costumes) is Susan Hilferty.
This 1998 production previously played at California's La Jolla Playhouse July 12-Aug. 9 and at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theatre Sept. 23-Nov. 1. The La Jolla, D.C. and New York stagings of the three-character play feature Felicity Jones and Tony Todd.
The Captain's Tiger draws on Fugard's youth as an idealistic young writer penning his first novel aboard the S.S. Graigaur, a rusting tramp steamer bound for Asia. There he meets Donkeyman, the ship's Swahili crew member, and Betty, the story's heroine.
The play had its world premiere in the fall of 1997 at the State Theatre in Pretoria, South Africa. New Jersey's McCarter Theatre hosted the drama, which has the writer character haunted by a cherished photograph of his mother, May 5-24, 1998. In that production, South Africans Owen Sejake and Jennifer Steyn joined Fugard on stage. McCarter, in an arts exchange with the country, sent Emily Mann's Having Our Say, the Delany Sisters' First 100 Years to the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, June 30-July 25, 1998. Other plays by Fugard, South Africa's major playwright, include The Blood Knot , Boesman and Lena , The Road To Mecca , Master Harold...and the Boys and Valley Song , which had its U.S. premiere at the McCarter.
Manhattan Theatre Club tickets are $36. City Center is at 131 W. 55th St. For information, call (212) 581-1212.
-- By Kenneth Jones
and Robert Simonson
