Acclaimed writer and director Lara Foot’s latest play, The Inconvenience of Wings, brings bipolar disorder and friendships into the spotlight at the Baxter Theatre, from Tuesday July 12 to Saturday August 13, at 7.30pm, nightly, with Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.
Lara Foot, the National Arts Festival 2016 Featured Artist and 1996 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre, has assembled a stellar cast and creative team for the much-anticipated world premiere of her latest play.
The production, starring Jennifer Steyn, Andrew Buckland and Mncedisi Shabangu, is set in a landscape of memory and dreams The Inconvenience of Wings tackles the issues of friendship, dysfunction, addiction and angels. Sara (Steyn) has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder; she is compulsive, alive and hates women who know how to make cupcakes. Paul (Buckland), her husband, is on a mission to find a cure for her afflictions and Professor James (Shabangu) quietly tries to save Paul from the inconvenience of his wings
This powerful and poignant new drama was inspired by author Abraham J Twerski’s book Addictive Thinking, which examines the notion of compulsion, addiction, denial and abuse of self as well as conversations on bipolar disorder that Foot had with celebrated psychiatrist Dr Sean Baumann.
It was further stirred by her father who has suffered from dementia for more than a decade.
This production also celebrates Foot’s illustrious history of collaborating with Buckland (Betrayal, The Well Being and Scrooge) and Shabangu (Tshepang and Fishers of Hope). It marks her first journey with Steyn, who was the 2014 Fleur du Cap award winner for The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore and who was recently seen at the Baxter in A Doll’s House. Most recently, Buckland was seen in Tobacco, And the Harmful Effects Thereof and Mncedisi Shabangu in Sizwe Banzi is Dead.
Book through Computicket.
