Five Women Ready for Post-Apartheid ‘Life’ in Fugard Play

Around the time of Nelson Mandela’s 1994 election, five young women take an aerobics class together in Johannesburg. Two are black, one colored (mixed race), one white and one Indian. Transformed by the hand of South African playwright Athol Fugard, these five are not merely a random group, but a handful of seeds for a new country. His play, “My Life,” is having its U.S. premiere at the Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood.

The Synthaxis Theatre Company has scored something of a coup by presenting “My Life,” a companion piece to Fugard’s “Valley Song,” the play he also recently directed and starred in at the Mark Taper Forum. “My Life” shares with “Valley Song” a post-apartheid optimism, captured in the form of young women who all are bursting with energy for a new kind of life.

But there’s just so much exuberance an audience can take. Where “Valley Song” pitted a girl’s ambition against the wishes of a strict grandfather, “My Life” provides no such opposition. There is virtually no conflict between the women--except that Gamy (Alysa Lobo), a sheltered Indian woman, is Hindu, and her belief in fate and her general passivity seems odd to the other girls. But they get over it, as they explain in overlapping monologues, and they admire Gamy for her spiritual calm and shining presence.

Fugard based the characters on five young women he interviewed in a workshop setting just after the election. “My Life” is really less a play than a series of monologues that hits a single note, one that is sustained with little variation by director Peter Grego.

Each of the five actresses radiate Symbolic Importance. Their wide-eyed energy is often pushed, and when they all cluster together to excitedly imitate a roller coaster or a water-skiing scene, you may want to run for cover.

Though “My Life” can seem like a scene class, individually the actresses score some solid moments. As Heather, Ilene Bergelson speaks touchingly of her fear for her white parents’ safety. Felice Parish is effective when her character, Busi, tries to laugh away the memory of a macabre scene. Michelle Crosby Jones plays Riana, a spirited young woman who finds violence in her own home.

As Shoki, Margaret Kemp delivers the most affecting monologue, a testament to the fact that a human being can feel rich despite extreme poverty. Although her girlishness could stand to be muted, she confidently fields the play’s most violent monologue, in which she tells of a beating she suffered at the hands of the police when she was 12. This is accompanied by the least subtle lighting shift you are likely to see in a theater.

“My Life” is performed in repertory with Fugard’s 1989 play “My Life! My Africa!” and is co-produced by the Other Side of the Hill Productions.

* “My Life,” in repertory with Fugard’s “My Life! My Africa!” Lankershim Arts Center, 5108 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Through June 15. $15. For schedule: (818) 761-8838. For tickets: (818) 789-8499. Running time for “My Life”: 1 hour, 40 minutes.