Acceptance

Hard Hitting, Thought-Provoking Play hits The Fringe

Acceptance, Jerry Mofokeng, is Directed by Rhodes University graduate Simona Mazza, written by Eva Mazza and was debuted at Drostdy Teater in Stellenbosch in November 2015.

Acceptance is based on the events around the highly publicised multiple filicides (the deliberate act of a parent killing his/her own child) by a South African-born mother of her three disabled children in England in April 2014.

The sixty-minute drama aims to give a voice to child-victims, whose voices are often buried with them. Through staging this play, the writer hopes the audience will deliberate over rather than skirt around the issues of a tragedy such as this one.

The fast-paced action, using straight dramatic technique married with physical theatrical elements and the use of visual projection, provides a platform to raise more awareness of filicide, the disabled, and the right to terminate life.

Acceptance hopes to shake the opinions that are often defined by society’s prejudices and the idea that some lives are less worthy than others.

Leading the cast is the legendary Jerry Mofokeng who plays the judge, alongside Lisa Derryn Overy as Jemma, Lea Vivier as Sam and Francois Viljoen as Nic.

“I’m thrilled to skate the boards of theatre again in a role that flies the social mask and touches the raw nerve of a man of power” states Jerry Mofokeng.

Simona Mazza, Director of Acceptance, adds; “I am so excited to revisit this text with Jerry’s acute theatrical intuition by my side. Showing this in Johannesburg to a discerning and conscious theatre-going community will be great learning curve and springboard for growth”.

What is Acceptance all about?

A well-known judge, who accepted a mother’s plea of manslaughter for killing her three disabled children, and who has been lauded for his fair judgement at the hearing, is woken up in the middle of the night by loud banging

He opens the door to a young man, in his early twenties, who urgently needs to speak to him.  The judge tries to convince him to wait until morning – but the young man (Nic) forces his way into his home. The judge, feeling threatened, tries unsuccessfully to contact the police. At the same time there is more knocking at the door and Nic is joined by his two siblings, Jemma and Sam.

The judge is forced to confront issues that he has never been required to do as a judge. He is asked to forget about the evidence that was presented before him – and to listen, instead, to the emotional and human story of the victims, whose voices, like many others, were lost in the media frenzy that built up to the trial that became a hearing.

The judge, through this make-shift hearing, is made to judge himself and to open up to emotional arguments, which up until now, he has been required to discard.

Acceptance has a low-price preview performance on Wednesday 5^th October, with the show opening officially on Thursday 6^th October and runs until Sunday 16^th October.

Performances are from Tuesdays – Saturdays at 20h00 and Sundays at 15h00.

Tickets are R100 and are available by visiting www.joburgtheatre.com or calling 0861 670 670, as well as through Webtickets and at selected Pick ‘n’ Pay stores.

(Tickets for the low-price preview on Wednesday 6 October will be at R70 for the one night only.)

For group bookings of 10 or more, contact the theatre directly on 011 877 6853/6815.

 

The play is 60 minutes in duration with no interval and has an age restriction of 12 with additional parental supervision advised for children between 12 – 16 years of age.

Acceptance is proudly produced byBetween The Lines Theatre Company (based in Stellenbosch) in collaboration with Alt Eye Productions.