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Elijah Felder as Mannetjie, age 5; Patrice Johnson as Veronica, Photo by Jim Roese

The Wilma recently opened its 10th season with a production of a fabulous new play, Coming Home, by South African playwright Athol Fugard. Fugard has been hailed as “the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world” by TIME Magazine, and it’s not hard to see why. The theater has produced four of Fugard’s plays previously, and he returns the love – he’s a big admirer of the Wilma’s vision and the directorial skills of theatre co-founder Blanka Zizka.

Coming Home is a sequel of sorts to a previous play, Valley Song, but you don’t have to have seen the first one to appreciate it. In Valley Song audiences met a young, ambitious girl being raised by her grandfather on a poor rural South African farm. She loved her grandfather, but longed to escape to the big city and carve out a new and exciting life for herself. 

Coming Home picks up years later, as the young woman returns from Cape Town to her deceased grandfather’s shack with a young son in tow, her dreams shattered, and a horrible secret. Veronica, the strong but broken young mother, is portrayed by the excellent actress Patrice Johnson in a phenomenal and heart-rending performance.

The other characters in the small cast include the adorable Elijah Felder as Veronica’s 5-year-old son, the talented and precocious young actor Antonio Dandridge as the same boy at age 9, and Nyambi Nyambi as a dunce who loves Veronica.

The play is pretty heavy, but it also has its funny lighthearted moments, and Fugard’s superb writing combines with the inspired performances to make for an excellent production that received a standing ovation.

The Wilma is also hosting a lecture symposium coinciding with the show, which is free to all ticket holders. The next lecture is this Sunday, November 8th after the matinee performance, and features scholars discussing post-apartheid South Africa. And don’t forget that great theatre needn’t break the bank – student tickets at the Wilma are just $10!

Coming Home
Now through November 15th

The Wilma Theatre
265 South Broad St, Philadelphia, PA
(215) 546-7824
www.wilmatheater.org