Blood Knot

This is a play about race. About apartheid, which is technically dead, and racism, which is very much alive. It’s about the to-the-bone love between brothers; the kind that transcends skin color and crosses social chasms. Or not. Family can at times tread a fine line between love and less admirable emotions. Sometimes it even crosses over. These men and their story invite you to explore that complex and compelling contradiction. To dig beneath the surface of what makes us kin, and what happens when we don’t like what we find there. Like all the best plays, Blood Knot is both relatable and searingly intimate. And like all the best plays, it will get under your skin.

Closes September 28

Featuring: Jim DeVita, Gavin Lawrence

Synopsis
Two brothers live a quiet, strained existence in a tiny house in apartheid South Africa. Morris, who has very fair skin, and has in the past passed as white, has recently returned to Port Elizabeth and is living with his brother Zachariah, who works long, painful hours as a sentry at the gate of a whites-only park. Despite Morris’ constant presence, Zach is lonely for the company of a woman, so Morris suggests he find a pen pal. When it turns out Zach’s pen pal isn't who they thought, the brothers’ desperation exposes the complex angles of their relationship in this powerful play by the man who wrote The Island (produced at APT in 2015) and Exits and Entrances (at APT in 2010). 

DIRECTOR’S NOTES

First of all I would like to thank American Players Theatre for
inviting me here this summer. I have long admired the work being
done here in Spring Green, and have often wondered what it would
be like to experience working here. Finally it happened and I am
really honored to be here with Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot. As Lorraine
Hansberry once said “Things don’t just happen, things happen Just.”

How true that can be.

My history with Fugard goes back years to my days as primarily an
actor with Sizwe Banzi is Dead, which I have had the opportunity to
act in and direct several times. Blood Knot has more significance for
me than I would have thought, having a brother myself, and a strained
relationship with him, brings to life many of the feelings and struggles
that come with family.

A story about two brothers living in a world where they must cope
with adversity, hardship and political oppression that can ruin the
spirit, as well as love, pain and fantasy.

Fugard explores a world we find hard to fathom these days, but
of course, until the heart is changed, the chains of racism exist—
whether it is supported by government or not.

With Blood Knot we will explore all these issues and what they can
sometimes do to the human spirit. Ultimately for me Love is at the
center of everything.

—Ron OJ Parson