An Ideal Companion

By JOHN GUARE

WONDERFUL DAYS! In the fall of 1986, under the passionate and imaginative direction of Gregory Mosher and Bernard Gersten, Lincoln Center Theater would open their second season with Woza Africa!, a month-long festival of new South African plays, written, acted, and directed by South Africans, exploring the grim realities of silenced freedoms under the oppression of apartheid. “Woza” is a Zulu word, meaning “rise up!” You can’t imagine the planning and expense and daring it took for Lincoln Center Theater to present these five revolutionary plays from a nation where apartheid would not end for another five years. The New York Times announced the coming event in July 1986.

The festival opened September 10, 1986 in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

These men and women had so much to say. Gregory wanted New York to meet Mbongeni Ngema and Percy Mtwa— these stars from “the belly of the beast.” Gregory assembled a panel of the South Africans to tell us about their lives, shining a light on a largely previously ignored theatrical world.

Gregory approached The New York Times about running a major piece on the people of Woza Africa! bringing their work to America. The Times demurred, saying they already covered South Africa, namely, in celebrating the work of Athol Fugard, universally regarded as South Africa’s greatest living playwright. Gregory pointed out that as vital as Fugard was, South Africa had a far richer and more complex vibrancy than one white man’s voice. The Times did not change their mind.

But how to cover this event? The evening featured such stars as Mbongeni Ngame whose Sarafina! was the hit of the festival, transferring to Broadway. The event came off brilliantly in the winter of 1987.

Gregory asked me to record what these artists had to say, edit it, and print it. Lincoln Center Theater would distribute it to its members.

And that is how the Lincoln Center Theater Review was born.

Anne Cattaneo, LCT’s newly appointed dramaturg, joined me as co-editor in 1988 for our fourth issue, for the production of Playboy of the West Indies by Trinidadian playwright Mustapha Matura. We went on to publish more than seventy issues over the next 35 years.

We’ve always thought the Review had one simple mission: to act as the ideal companion you’d want to go to the theater with, that voice who can best illuminate the issues generated by the play you’ve just seen.

Over the years, those ideal companions have included the likes of Margaret Atwood, Laurie Colwin, Joan Didion, Jenny Egan, Richard Howard, George Packer, and Tom Stoppard. My favorite piece explored how King Lear could have avoided all that pain and anguish and turmoil of dividing up his kingdom if he’d only had the sense to hire a good estate lawyer like Ron Carroll to draw up a watertight last will and testament.

Anne retired as dramaturg in February 2022. We passed the editorial baton on to her eminent successor, Jenna Clark Embrey, who has now overseen four issues. Uncle Vanya was the 80th issue, what you hold in your hands now, dear reader, is the 81st.

Thank you, Lincoln Center Theater and André Bishop. We never imagined the Review entering its fifth decade. I can only echo the word of our first issue: Woza!

Carry on!

John Guare