Soil

The Auto and General Theatre on the Square is hosting a month of Greek flavoured SA plays. The playwright of the first (Soil) and the director of the second (Meze, Mira and Makeup), Renos, is part of M's writing group; so we got an invitation to the opening day. It was my first time at the theatre, and being effectively next to the parking lot, has its disadvantages - mainly in hearing car doors slamming and alarms going off. That said, the acoustics are pretty good - so you don't struggle to hear the actors on stage.

The first play of the evening, Soil is based on a true story of a South African of Greek-Cypriot descent's return to the house of his grandparents, and meeting the Turkish-Cypriot lady living in the house - a house given to her father by the occupying forces of Turkey. Effectively it is a story about land rights - and although not directly explored - the history of Cyprus (as encapsulated on Wikipedia) it is a long running saga of multiple occupations and settlements.

The play's structure of three parts, makes it a bit difficult in terms of pacing - dragging on the topic a bit. This is particularly notable in the very end - a part that I thought was completely unnecessary; as the conclusion in the story had already been reached. 

It is a topical, and partly political play. However, it doesn't really have a take on the actual answer - the encounter is so specific; it does not really highlight any meaningful solution to the wider problem. It was still good theatre.