The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek at MetroStage

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek

MetroStage
1201 North Royal Street Alexandria

Inspired by the life of outsider artist Nukian Mabuza, Athol Fugard's most recent play depicts both the brutality of apartheid in the 1980's and the violence and engrained patterns that have impacted the post-apartheid in South Africa. The painted flowers and images of the rocks dotting the fields represent an abstract vision of this painter's life. And the interaction with the wife of the farm owner clearly depicts South Africa yesterday and today as it struggles to reconcile its past and its future.

Thru - Sep 30, 2018

Thursdays: 8:00pm

Fridays: 8:00pm

Saturdays: 3:00pm & 8:00pm

Sundays: 3:00pm & 7:00pm

Price: $55

Box Office: 703-548-9044

www.metrostage.org

The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...We do eventually understand the significance of Nukain’s creative duel with the Big One. Even then, it’s hard not to compare “Painted Rocks” unfavorably with “The Road to Mecca,” Fugard’s better play about an outsider artist. As Nukain knows all too well, the problem with artistic achievement is that it becomes a yardstick that subsequent work is measured by."

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- Celia Wren

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...There is a good, rather grim, chance that The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek will be Athol Fugard’s last play; well into his eighties, Fugard has wryly admitted as much in recent interviews. If that does happen to be the case, then he has given an absolutely masterful farewell to the theater and to the lingering, toxic effects of apartheid, the constant focus of the South African playwright’s long career."

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- E.A. Aymar

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...Brown gives a deeply moving performance as a laborer who, faced with the indignities of being treated as a second-class citizen, has created beauty and self-expression in the margins of society, and Hasty is a refreshingly natural, unmannered young actor. Their interplay shimmers as Nukain pours out the lessons of his life and Bokkie absorbs them. Hunter excels in showing how Jonathan used his mentor's lessons to survive the upheaval around him. Penning, last seen at MetroStage as a totally convincing Roy Cohn in Are You Now, or Have You Ever Been, ably shows how the easy condescension of the first act gives way to the armed anxiety of the second, and how people are never too old to learn."

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- Susan Berlin

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...Go see this play. Cry with Bokkie, rage at Elmarie, and feel the hope that Jonathan inspires for a day when every person, each complicated and uniquely wonderful human being, will be seen."

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- Jeannette Mulherin

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

"...This latest work by Athol Fugard, The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek, is a masterpiece on so many levels. Set in two distinct times, it explores the oppressive impact of apartheid in South Africa and then turns its lens on 20 years later to witness the personal cost and price of “Reconciliation.” Trying to make peace is never tidy or easy, and thanks to Fugard’s gifted language and characters, we get a chance to feel our way through this tumultuous time of change, of which the devasting impact is still being felt."

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- Debbie Minter Jackson

BroadwayWorld - Highly Recommended

"...At the end of this theater season, MetroStage will be moving from its long-time home, a converted warehouse in Old Town Alexandria. The theater is using the occasion of this final year in the space to revisit playwrights, artists, plays and music that have shaped the company. How fortunate that Athol Fugard is among them, and that MetroStage brings this important latest work to the Washington area."

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- Pamela Roberts

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The Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek at MetroStage