The Syringa Tree

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

The most profound comment that can be made about Alliance Stage’s current production of The Syringa Tree starring Karen Slack is DON’T MISS IT.

Karen Slack plays several characters in Alliance Stage’s production of The Syringa Tree.

In many ways that is all that needs to be said. In many ways that is all that can be said. There are no words in the English language big enough to engulf the hour and 40 minute experience of being transfixed as Slack unfolds a heart-rending story of innocence with the racial horror of Africa’s apartheid playing 24 different characters. Dressed simply in a reddish brown long jumper with a dark brown tee shirt and bare feet, Slack in a tenth of a nano second transforms from an innocent happy six year old playing on a swing to the family maid, her mother, the family gardener, a hospital matron, her grandfather, grandmother, neighbors, a Catholic priest, her brother, and several other characters of all ages. Without a change of costume, with only her body and voice to manipulate, there is never any question about what character she plays. Incredible. Magnificent.

WIth the multi-skillions of outstanding productions I have experienced, The Syringa Tree has to be one of the most awesome theatre experiences of my life. Directed by Christopher Willard on a bare stage except for a swing that sometimes is a swing and sometimes represents a syringa tree, Slack gives a performance of a lifetime. She doesn’t miss a beat, and is completely engulfed by the 24 characters that sit on her shoulders.

Aside from Slack’s magnificent performance, as though that can ever be an aside, the deeply personal autobiographical exploration of the effects of African apartheid with its man’s inhumanity to man is a grab at the heart, kick in the head, eye-opening contemplation of innocence, brutality, inhumane bullying, and at the same time the depth of love, commitment, and agony for family, and extended family across color lines.

The lights come up on six-year-old Elizabeth Grace romping on a swing with carefree abandonment. With child-like inquisitiveness, she quires Salamina, her family’s beloved maid, about her pregnancy. Was she going to register her baby? Elizabeth wants to know. Under the 1948 apartheid laws, all blacks had to be registered to maintain white supremacy. Babies were taken from their mothers to be brought up in an all black community if they did not have the right identification papers. The tragedies, calamity, anxiety, of the events are seen through the eyes of the young English girl with the pure observation of unclouded child eyes.

Slack amazingly is at home with six-year-old Elizabeth as she is with the 60-plus aged characters integrating each character as her own.

The syringa trees alternately produces fragrant star-shaped flowers and poisonous berries. Symbolizing the land where it grows, providing solace and refuge for a child searching for rhyme and reason.

Playwright Pamela Gien received several awards, and if it were within my power, I would grant her “The Moon On A String Award.” For Christopher Willard, I would give him the “Rings Around The Moon Award.” For Karen Slack, I would just simply give her the Moon.