Durban - The city’s newest theatre ‒ The Bridge Theatre ‒ opens in Durban North this week with the critically acclaimed production The King of Broken Things.
The show is a whimsical, profound and poignant one-hander by Michael Taylor Broderick, and features Cara Roberts playing a young boy.
The Bridge Theatre is a quaint 100-seater raked theatre at Northlands Primary School which the principal and school board have earmarked to be developed into a professional venue. This production marks the “soft” launch of the venue, which over the next few months will be further upgraded and enhanced.
The Bridge Theatre plans to build a theatre-going audience in the Durban North area, but also to provide an opportunity for pupils to get first-hand experience of live arts by becoming involved in the productions staged there.
The King of Broken Things has just returned from The Golden Dolphin International Puppet Festival, which is held every three years in Bulgaria to showcase puppet shows from around the globe. It was the only South African production invited and it won three awards for Best Actress, Best Script and Best Director.
“The past week was amazing on so many levels but there’s one highlight, an epiphany moment, a revelation that will stay with me forever,” wrote Oya Yilmaz Kermani, a jury member at the festival. “Thank you, Michael Taylor-Broderick, Cara Roberts and Brandon Bunyan, for this beautiful, beautiful thing you created, and embracing my vulnerability when I needed it the most.”
“The King of Broken Things dares its audience to imagine, to dream and to believe. It is a show about hope, about fixing and mending, about forgiving and about healing, all of these are key ingredients that are much needed in our beloved country right now,” says Taylor Broderick.
“It gently deals with many issues facing society today: bullying; prejudice; gratuitous waste; absent fathers and the futility and consequences of war. All of these themes are keenly and wryly observed by the young protagonist.
“Because these ideas are expressed by a child (played by Cara Roberts), they are more honest and forthright ‒ acceptance is where change and healing begins.”
The show is a previous winner of a Gold Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival.
It has six performances on November 4, 10, 11 at 7pm and November 5, 6 and 12 at 2.30pm. There is guarded on-site parking and refreshments will be on sale. Tickets R130 adults/ R110 concessions from Webtickets.
The Independent on Saturday