Playland

“Character actors Lou Ferguson and Francis Guinan create a riveting dark atmosphere as they portray a black night watchman and a retired Afrikaner soldier who have a chance meeting at a Johannesburg amusement park on a lonely New Year’s Eve. Recorded live at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the L.A. Theatre Works production secures the rapt silence of the audience as the two men compare and one-up each other with stories of their sordid and violent pasts. Written in 1993 on the eve of South Africa’s first fully integrated elections, Fugard’s play leaves the listener with a sense of hope — a hope that, in this rare historic case, came to fruition.”