With a trio of actors turning in solid, inspired, and beautifully nuanced performances, The Roundabout Theater Company’s Broadway Premier of Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca lights up the stage.

Starring Rosemary Harris, Carla Eugino, and Jim Dale, the play centers around the lives, desires, and struggles of an aged widow and artist Miss Helen (portrayed by the luminary Harris), her young school-teacher friend Elsa Barlow (the understated powerhouse Eugino), and the kindly yet over-eager village preacher Marius Byleveld (played by a subtle and poignant Dale). Set in the small Karoo village of New Bethesda, South Africa during the years of apartheid in 1974, Fugard’s delicately intricate and well-crafted script is paints a poignant landscape of emotions and reveals what it means to look within and seek  out your own inner light with which to illuminate a world full of malevolent darkness.

Though separated by age and distance, both women share an almost sisterly bond, often finishing each other’s sentences or getting into over-blown fights about the most trivial of things. It is very obvious that both care deeply for each other. Among their topics of conversation regarding matters of the heart are a discussion of love and trust, and at one point they toss back and forth the idea that it might be possible for the two states to exist and be enacted independently, a theme that comes back towards the end of the play.

All three actors should be commended for their masterful work is this play though Harris’ Miss Helen deserves particular mention. At 740 seats, the American Airlines Theater is a tough house to fill with such small and delicate emotional explorations but Harris’ sheer magnetism and impressive technical voice work manage to do what a show such as say, The Roundabout Theater’s previous work, Man and Boy perhaps failed to accomplish. Candle held aloft and shining brightly, proudly proclaiming her own oddness and zest for life, Harris’ Miss Helen is an inspiring treat.

If there is one weakness of this production, it would most certainly be the accents. Granted there are those who say that the South African accent is among the hardest to do properly, however none of the three actors even have a decent crack at it. By this same token however, it should be mentioned that a poorly executed accent can completely ruin a moment or even an entire show, and the actors are talented enough that the show is enjoyable and believable in spite of this. Just don’t go into it thinking you’re going to hear a pitch-perfect dialect.

A tip of the hat should be given to the show’s director, Gordon Edelstein whose subtle guiding hand does not go unnoticed. Not a single moment of the story’s arc has been overlooked, silently engaging the audience throughout. There are no “edge of your seat” or “laugh-a-minute” moments, but this isn’t that type of story. With the help of his exceedingly talented actors, Edelstein has molded a piece that is touching, engaging, and challenging but never slaps you in the face with its message.

Mention should also be given to the play’s set and lighting designers, Michael Yeargan and Peter Kaczorowski. Again, this stage is vast and both designers do a brilliant job of creating an intimate and detailed playground for their actors to use to their advantage. Yeargan’s attention to detail, color, and texture are all quite impressive and lend believability and gravity to the story. And especially in a play so much about the metaphorical properties of light, Kaczorowki’s semi-candle-lit stage is a visually intriguing feat of technical artistry. It cannot go unsaid that this would have been an entirely different production had these glowing and delicate bastions of light been given their due and proper artistic weight. There’s just something about lighting a candle (or about fifteen) on stage that makes it that much more magical

The Road to Mecca is presented by The Roundabout Theater Company at The American Airlines Theater and runs until March 4^th. For more information or to get tickets, visit http://www.roundabouttheatre.org/Shows-Events/Road-to-Mecca.aspx

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