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Two Sheds Theatre presents

African Gothic

By Reza de Wet

"It’s edge-of-your-seat stuff... Oliver Gomm is mesmerising, a tightly coiled spring... Janna Fox is unnerving... a tightly told and gripping drama that is expertly packaged into just 80 minutes"
★★★★ Stage Review

"Performances are uniformly strong and well realised, with Fox particularly playing the wild-eyed Sussie to moody excess. The production is very strong, with never a dull moment, a real testament to the directors’ pacing of the piece and the quality of the performances... the design is also tight and beautifully executed... an entertaining, morbid experience"
★★★★ Plays to See

"Two Sheds Theatre have conjured a sweltering, volatile atmosphere within Park’s 90-seat auditorium... the leads do very well inhabiting de Wet’s script in all its frantically unhinged glory... Ewan’s measured incredulity counters the madness well, but it is Ewen’s stoic and almost wordless Alina who steals the show, standing in quiet support of her young charges... African Gothic offers a most fulfilling theatrical performance by drawing its audience entirely into its world, and so too into the mouth of madness"
★★★★The Upcoming

"There’s a lot packed into this production... Fox does so well at portraying her character’s late mother – it’s a sight to behold... this striking and chaotic play makes for a satisfying and intense experience, with plenty of food for thought"
★★★★ London Theatre 1

 

"A powerful exposé of apartheid lies... a macabre debunking of the myths that propped up the ancestral pride of Afrikaner culture... the oppressive weirdness of the situation is powerfully communicated in Two Sheds Theatre Company's fine revival, directed by Roger Mortimer and Deborah Edgington... Janna Fox and Oliver Gomm are an excellent, genuinely alarming double act... Adam Ewan brings just the right note of nerdy officiousness and automatic racism to the lawyer from Bloemfontein"
The Independent


"I was utterly unprepared for the extreme level of intensity that this play offered. Brutal, shocking and unapologetic, African Gothic is not for the faint hearted or weak minded... the chemistry [between the leads] was commanding and they successfully created a chilling and nail-biting atmosphere for their audience... the piece had a haunting and uneasy atmosphere about it, reminding me nervously yet excitedly of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw. African Gothic was bravely and imaginatively directed by Roger Mortimer and Deborah Edgington, the creative team behind the wonderful My Children! My Africa at Trafalgar Studios last year and I look forward to seeing their next production. African Gothic is the horror story of a South African family’s bleak and flawed existence and is a truly powerful piece of theatre"
A Younger Theatre

 

"Oliver Gomm and Janna Fox are both impressive as the feral and child-like brother and sister, tumbling through a psychosexual nightmare of re-enactments from their earlier childhood... Adam Ewan is best of all as hapless lawyer Grové who turns up on their disintegrating farm... there’s a pleasingly flyblown set from designer Nancy Surman and atmospheric lighting from Jack Weir... seriously uncomfortable"
Time Out

 

"This play certainly delivers what it says on the tin... Roger Mortimer’s production and Nancy Surman’s design are strong on atmosphere: you can almost smell the sense of decay. Oliver Gomm and Janna Fox are also persuasive as the crazed siblings"
The Guardian

 

"It's not wrong, that title. From the moment the lights go up we know that something awful is waiting to happen on this fiercely dilapidated farm, whose isolation is almost tangible. The late South African playwright Reza de Wet offers a metaphor about Afrikaner society with this 1986 drama and it’s not one that bodes well... 'I’ve never seen white people living like this,' the lawyer remarks, in the play’s most telling line... Athol Fugard ramped up several notches"
The Evening Standard

 

"A skilful and efficiently staged studio-theatre revival... Nancy Surman's set and Jack Weir's moody lighting evoke the tumbledown heat and squalor of this wooden farmstead... the cast work hard and well"
The Times

 

"Reza de Wet's 1985 Afrikaans play buzzes with flies and foreboding. It shows us something grim... and keeps cranking up the nastiness... time begins to feel like a sad hallucination in this piece about the crushing force of Afrikaner history... de Wet's vision is feverishly bleak "

Sunday Times

 

"The production has atmosphere in fistfuls... a harrowing, remarkable piece of drama"
The Stage

 

"Two Sheds' intense revival [is] given a superb visual setting, with a splendid design from Nancy Surman and brooding, atmospheric and disarmingly seductive lighting from Jack Weir... [Directors] Mortimer and Edgington are skilful at conveying the glistening discomfort that radiates through the tale... both Adam Ewan and Lesley Ewen are excellent... Oliver Gomm is precisely right as Frikkie... [he] presents the complexities of this disturbed, fractured personality with turn-on-dime precision... an intensely physical performance, every aspect of which is perfectly judged... a powerful and confrontational play... an evening of provocative and thoughtful theatre, beautifully designed and featuring some terrific performances"
Live Theatre UK

 

"A decaying farmstead where lack of rainfall is bringing ruin is effectively evoked by Nancy Surman’s setting of timber near collapse and iron bedstead and Erin Witton’s ominous but unobtrusive sound design... Janna Fox and Oliver Gomm play these siblings with passion and commitment... she gives the character a hysterical infantilism that seems absolutely appropriate"
British Theatre Guide

 

"Strong turns from Janna Fox and Oliver Gomm as Sussie and Frikkie respectively keep you engrossed in the characters... both tense and intriguing for the audience to watch, growing darker and more curious as it continues on... the cast do a great job of keeping you in the moment and creating characters that you have an interest in and want to see develop... a well written and ably performed production, this play makes for a great evening’s entertainment"
BCurrent

 

"[Janna Fox] does a wonderful turn morphing between Sussie and their mother with a mesmerising quality; when she switches roles, you are temporarily suspended from remembering the other... [she is] the star of the show... African Gothic is not an easy watch – it will leave you unsettled, and we should welcome space for that type of work. This is a story firmly set in South Africa but somehow, beyond it, perhaps it echoes the destruction and oppression that we see time and time again in human nature and history"
British Black List

 

"Reza de Wet's alarming tale of white trash in South Africa's velt is directed here with few apologies to the sensitivities of its audience. From the opening scenes to the blood-soaked conclusion, the sexual and violent air of anticipation lies as thick as the sweet smelling smoke enveloping the stage... Fox is wonderful as the childlike Sussie, Gomm superbly menacing as her disturbing brother. Adam Ewan plays the visitor Grové who stumbles into the siblings' nightmarish world with a memorable performance... Alina is hauntingly portrayed by Lesley Ewen, the onlooker who sees more than she lets on. African Gothic does not set out to provide easy answers nor a comfortable experience, but it is marvellous drama"
Daily Echo

 

"Absorbing... the gradual unfolding of the psychology of the siblings’ stories is compelling... the play is superbly staged [and] the uncertain meaning is good. Theatre that makes obvious political points is clunky: better to send audiences away with something to think about"
One World

 

"De Wet brilliantly elucidates the dehumanising effects of isolation. Nancy Surman’s terrific set evokes a dilapidated farm in the midst of a drought. The Park’s studio feels suitably hot and oppressive, adding to the claustophobic atmosphere. De Wet’s gothic horror tackles big subjects – incest, child abuse and superstition, as well as the decline of Afrikaaner dominance"
Camden New Journal

 

"Nancy Surman and Jack Weir together compose a striking visual for this production, an elaborate setting which engulfs  the audience in to the atmosphere of African Gothic... Brave the unnerving, dark production by Two Sheds Theatre and dare to see how well you sleep afterwards"
Scatter of Opinion