November 6 - December 2, 2007
PRODUCTION SPONSORS
The Syringa Tree is a deeply personal story of an abiding love between two families - one black, one white, and the two children that are born into their shared South African household in the early 1960s. Spanning four generations, the story is told first by six-year-old Elizabeth Grace, as she tries with humour and sometimes palpable fear, to make sense of the chaos, magic and darkness of Africa.
Audiences will marvel at the tour-de-force performance of actress Caroline Cave, as she plays an entire world of characters, transforming in the blink-of-an-eye from black to white, from old to young, from Xhosa to Afrikaans to Zulu to Jewish, all the while revealing the complexities of her characters' dreams, struggles, losses, and laughter.
W I N N E R
OBIE Best Play of the Year
Drama Desk Award
Drama League Award
Outer Critics' Circle Award
“Instantly engaging, exotic, complex, deeply shocking…
Anyone interested in the rudiments of storytelling
will admire Ms. Gien’s courage and considerable skill…
The payoff is a thoroughly persuasive transport to a time and a place…stun(s) with the power of a gut punch.
- THE NEW YORK TIMES
“A tour-de-force solo drama…
It’s a love story, really, about the strong, lasting bond between a white girl and her black nanny in South Africa… emotionally powerful without being overtly political; audiences regularly emerge from the theater crying.”
- THE NEW YORKER
Five stars out of five! Shared Syringa a triumph!
This is what Theatre should be.
The Syringa Tree is a work of profound compassion and vivid theatricality. The fact that it can make you sense what it was like to live in South Africa by conveying it all through the eyes of a six year old girl is a tribute to the depth of Gien's writing.
- TORONTO STAR
"All the superlatives:
astonishing, amazing, highly entertaining and deeply moving.
Pamela Gien’s play is a remarkable feat, taking us into the lives of people who are very different from us and, also, much the same.
It is not an evening that you are likely to forget.
I certainly never will."
- MIKE NICHOLS
Astonishing...When it was over, my reaction was "Wow!"...I was crying and cheering...Go see it. You'll be a lucky fish...Amazing...I don't recall being so moved in a piece in a very, very, very long time.
- ROSIE O’DONNELL
“Astonishing…Affecting… (with) a dramatic and heartbreaking conclusion… A deceptive sweet simplicity haunts The Syringa Tree”
- ASSOCIATED PRESS
“The Syringa Tree is a powerful play.”
- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
”The Syringa Tree is a revelation!
As huge and grand as an opera, but as intimate as a ballet.”
- OPRAH
“A word of mouth sensation!”
- NEWSDAY
“Gien deftly presents us with the diverging fates of the white and black children, and the adults’ attempts to cope with an unjust society…Gien’s characters are people, not caricatures; she knows how they speak, move and sing, and treats them with dignity…The evening builds to a climax of striking intensity!
- THE NEW YORK POST
“The work is a virtuoso piece for Gien…
an impressive debut as a writer.”
- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wonderful...One of the best things I've ever seen...
It's a great show...Go see it.
- MATTHEW BRODERICK
The story draws you in and involves you to a point where you are certain you know the people, feel their terror and smell that Syringa tree. But the fact is: this is a one woman show! That exclamation point barely conveys the extraordinary piece of drama that takes place in this out-of-the-way theater…It will tear your heart out and send you reaching for your tissues. The Syringa Tree packs a punch rarely felt in the theater today. Don’t miss it.”
-CURTAIN UP
A story worth telling and a play worth seeing. The Syringa Tree is one of those little treasures that Manhattan theatergoers come upon that is made twice as sweet because it’s so completely unexpected.
- ON THE AISLE
The best thing to take center stage in years.
- BRYANT GUMBEL
What am I going to say that even touches how beautiful this work is?
It’s exquisite! Don’t miss it!
- HELEN HUNT
A whirl-wind display of acting excellence in which she weaves in and out of souls with breathtaking fluidity…Both exciting and moving! Larry Moss directs this show like a jeweler trying to place a multi-faceted diamond in its setting.
- BACK STAGE
The Syringa Tree is pure theatrical magic, with words that lift the spirit and charm the ear, and a performance so deft and brilliant that you will not believe your own eyes- Pamela Gien casts a spell that will never fade from your heart or memory. Go. Just go. Don’t make excuses. Don’t ask questions. Just go!
- JASON ALEXANDER
Uncommonly moving, even wrenching… a series of character transformations so instantaneous and so intense that you believe the stage is peopled with multitudes. Still, it is not just the technical achievement that startles one into attention. The grown-up Elizabeth leaves for America, and her subsequent return to Johannesburg to find her past again constitutes a poem of inconsolable loss and nostalgia that leaves the American audience grieving for the beloved country as much as the central character. This really is a transcendent dramatic experience!
- ROBERT BRUSTEIN, THE NEW REPUBLIC
The Syringa Tree is a fully realized, completely original piece of art. One wonders: are you watching a play, or someone's life unfolding before your eyes (a life that instantly reconnects everyone to their own deep, rich story!). Simply said, the Syringa Tree is an absolute, life enriching masterpiece!
- HILARY SWANK
