Prepare to Embrace the Impact

BAM! The train rams into the black woman and her kid – is what we have expected to be The Train Driver’s sensational opener. Instead, we are welcomed by a wasteland of rusted metals and sand, and a run-down, decaying car sits silently on stage that sets up an eerie and increasingly edgy mood. It is the home of Simon Hanabe (Leon Addison Brown) the black gravedigger, and the resting ground for the nameless. And so we witness Athol Fugard’s The Train Driver, the after-tale based on a true story where a black woman and her four children jumped in front of a train and died.

In this story about the despair brought forth by the apartheid, Fugard chooses to tell it in the perspective of the white Train Driver, Roelf Visagie (Ritchie Coster). Not only do Africans feel despair, so much that they are willing to commit suicide, the whites who live among them also do. They can suffer severe traumas that can lead to insanity, resentment, and devastation of their lives. That is well portrayed by the great dramatic acting of Coster. He enters the stage in misery after the train incident, roaring at Simon to locate the nameless black woman that he has killed. He walks in circles, scratches and pulls his hair, wipes his sweat, spits while shouting, kicks the sand, and throws metal parts and stones to illustrate his anxiety, anger, frustration, and ultimately, despair. He has lost everything: his job, his family, his mind and his hopes. Pointing to his head, Roelf says to Simon, “It means I’m fucked up in here.”

Hope is something that separates the white men from the black men in Africa. But Fugard effective shows us that once hope is lost people become equals regardless of their skin colors. The exceptional lines that Roelf, in all his wrath and insanity, repeatedly concludes reveal that “It’s all about hope.” After the train driver realizes this, he wants to bury himself in the same graveyard as the black woman who died. The climax, however, is the abrupt death of Roelf, masterfully enhanced by the thundering noise soundtrack of an incoming train. Hopelessness and death then become the ultimate equalizers for people living in apartheid.

(Photo Credits to Signature Theater, taken by Richard Termine)

The uniqueness of this stage in Signature Theater lies in its efficiency. The unused tires and rubbles on the broken car acts like a staircase for Roelf’s grand entrance, day and night is easily altered by the powerful lights, and Simon’s metal box home can turn to reveal and conceal its inner chamber. You wouldn’t think that a seemingly barren stage can employ so many subtleties to add life to the play.

(Photos Credit to Signature Theater, taken by Richard Termine)

For this 90 minutes two-man show, to keep the audience captivated and excited throughout is an incredible feat, especially when both characters are played with a thick accent. But with the vigor, anger, and desperation portrayed by the casts, Coster and Brown, The Train Driver accomplished just that. Not only has Coster and Brown perfectly memorize their lines, the spirited emotions quickly circulate through the audiences as Roelf explodes in anger and frustration, pointing, cursing and ordering Simon with a condescending tone.

Roelf’s costume, however, reveals that he has no social status other than the fact that he is white. Dressed in bagged pants, dirty green jacket and a pair of old sneakers, Roelf looks pitiful. It was disappointing that Simon almost looks better than Roelf with his unwrinkled overcoat. Fortunately, Simon’s inner garment, untidy dress-up and baggy prison-like overall, indicates that he is in no better position than Roelf.

(Photos Credit to Signature Theater, taken by Richard Termine)

The Train Driver gives us a deep insight into the apartheid existing in South Africa, and it is masterfully scripted and performed. It provides a powerful account on the aftermath of a terrible tragedy caused by apartheid with a strong emphasis on hopelessness. Without a doubt, this play certainly is a masterpiece of its genre.