Road to Mecca, The

No doubt about it, Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca is tough going, a long, winding journey with its pay-off at the end. This pay-off is not with blazing fireworks but finding an artist’s inspiration she fears is lost. Directed with sensitivity by Gordon Edelstein, the Roundabout Theatre Company's production at the American Airlines Theater is driven by three stunning performances and the poetic, often passionate language of its playwright. While Fugard usually centers his plays on politics and apartheid, The Road to Meccaexplores the artist and his society, muse and faith. This particular artist, Helen Martins, almost 70, is exquisitely portrayed by Rosemary Harris, aged 84.

In 1974, Helen lived outside the insular village of New Bethesda in the desolate Karoo region of South Africa. After her husband died 15 years ago, her life changed dramatically and she turned her focus to creativity. Mecca was her inspiration, living in her imagination as a dazzling center of beauty and enlightenment. To bring this vision to life, she tore out her vegetable garden, replacing it with wild, fantastic cement statues of animals and Wise Men facing east. Her home became a refuge as she became more reclusive.

Now, troubled by arthritis, and worse, the dimming of her artistic inspiration, Helen is insecure, afraid she will never complete her parade of statues. Michael Yeagan’s design of her wildly eye-catching house, cluttered and obviously neglected, like her drab garb, reflects Helen’s problematic mental and physical situation. Her disapproving Afrikaner neighbors suspect her of mental instability and religious blasphemy. Alarmed, Pastor Marius Byleveld (Jim Dale), the Conservative minister and self-proclaimed patriarch of the community, tries to convince “Miss Helen” to move into a nearby home for the elderly.

Desperate, Helen writes a letter to Elsa (Carla Cugino), a young Capetown teacher she befriended five years earlier. Reading it, Elsa feared that Miss Helen was close to harming herself. Although she is at a low point in her own life, Ella loves, admires, and trusts Miss Helen and drives 800 miles alone to the Karoo, a draining 12-hour journey. At the top of the play, Elsa has just arrived at the house. She is cranky and tired, but wants to find out what is going on. Most of Act I is Elsa’s repeated questioning and Miss Helen’s reluctant answers, but their close affinity is undeniable.

Events pick up when Pastor Byleveld arrives, hoping to get Miss Helen’s signed agreement to move into the assisted facility. In her troubled state, Helen is torn between the fiery Elsa and persuasive Pastor, Elsa passionately fighting for Miss Helen to stand firm for her self-expression, even after she is stunned by some of the minister’s revelations. Several knotty points from Act I are finally clarified here.

Although there is much verbosity and little action, three stellar actors have a workout with their individual blocks of monologues. Carla Gugino’s Elsa is fierce in her fight for Helen’s individuality and independence. Jim Dale plays Pastor Marius, the part that Athol Fugard originated in 1988. He portrays a manipulative patriarch yet unveils nuances in the minister’s character that make him, if not lovable, at least not a villain. Rosemary Harris delivers an outstanding portrayal of an eccentric fragile woman, dispirited and frightened about “the darkness” and the loss of a reason for living. Helen’s face is as luminescent as the candles she lights every evening. She rises inwardly as she finds an inner strength to blow out the candles and take the steps to move on artistically as far as she can go.

The character is based on an actual South African artist, Helen Meyers, whose home, named The Owl House, is now a museum. Celebrating Fugard’s 80th birthday, this is a Broadway premiere for The Road to Mecca, although it had a New York staging in 1988 and it is one of four productions of his works here this season. It is unfortunate that some judicious Act I editing by Athol Fugard could have made this worthwhile journey less tedious.