‘Syringa Tree’ Comes to Marjorie Luke
Westmont Brings One-Woman Play on Apartheid to Santa Barbara
A deeply personal story about apartheid in South Africa in the early 1960s comes to the stage in Santa Barbara next month. Gin Hammond performs “The Syringa Tree” at the Marjorie Luke Theatre, Friday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m.
Pamela Gien, who was born and raised in Johannesburg, wrote “The Syringa Tree” in the mid 1990s, and it has been presented around the world. She appeared in the autobiographical play on Broadway, and it won the 2001 Obie Award.
Hammond won the Helen Hayes Award as outstanding lead actress three years ago for her 24-character performance in “The Syringa Tree” in Washington, D.C. She has appeared internationally at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, The Moscow Art Theatre and the Roadside Theatre in Heidelberg, Germany, to great acclaim.
Earlier this month, The Buffalo News described her performance as “one of the most ingenious, moving and extraordinary pieces of theater you'll ever see. Shed any doubts. ‘The Syringa Tree’ works masterfully, due to the exceptional quality of the drama and its charmingly adroit and powerfully talented actor, Gin Hammond.”
“The Syringa Tree” is a powerful, true story and spans four generations, from early apartheid to present day free South Africa. It illustrates a love between a black family, a white family and two children who are born into the shared household. The name of the play refers to a South African tree.
The performance is part of the seventh annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts and is sponsored by the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts at Westmont. The annual Conversation addresses the distinctive features of liberal arts education and the challenges facing it.
“The performance of ‘The Syringa Tree’ serves as powerful example of what a liberal arts education can offer,” says Chris Hoeckley, director of the institute. “To write the play, to perform it, and to fully appreciate it as a viewer requires historical and political awareness, artistic and critical skills, and concern for social justice, all essential components of a liberal arts education.”
Tickets are $18 for adults and $10 for students and can be purchased by calling (805) 565-7247 or by e-mail to libarts@westmont.edu. For more information, please visit www.westmont.edu/syringatree.