Gail Louw is the writer of The Only White opening at Chelsea Theatre. Seen through the eyes of teenager Peter Hain, the boy who was to become an ardent anti-apartheid campaigner and later a member of the Tony Blair cabinet and then on to The House of Lords, The Only White is the account of a desperate fight for freedom.
Directed by Anthony Shrubsall, The Only White’s cast comprises Edward Sage-Green (The Mousetrap – West End, The False One – Sam Wannamaker Playhouse) as John Harris, Avena Mansergh – Wallace (Who Is Theo? – Teahouse Theatre, Lovesick – Hope Theatre) as Ann Harris, Gil Sidaway (Newbies Concert – Union Theatre, The Happy Prince – Watford Palace Theatre) as Peter Hain, Robert Blackwood (The Two Worlds of Charlie F – Theatre Royal Haymarket/National Tour. Whodunnit [unrehearsed] – Park Theatre) as Wal Hain and Emma Wilkinson Wright (Necessary Targets – Southwark Playhouse, Assisted – Edinburgh Fringe) as Ad Hain.
The Only White is at Chelsea Theatre 4th to 22nd April, 2023.
Your play The Only White is coming to Chelsea Theatre, what can you tell us about the play?
In July 1964, a phone rings at Johannesburg Railway Station. John Harris speaks quickly into the receiver: “This is the African Resistance Movement. We have planted a bomb, It is not our intention to harm anyone. Clear the Concourse.” They don’t. The bomb explodes, twenty-three are injured and one dies.
The Only White is the story of the one white man who was executed for political activities in Apartheid South Africa. It is a true retelling of a man’s need to do something big, something significant, that he believed could change the course of history and end oppression.
The repercussions of his action are enormous, not only in its actual negative impact on his cause, but also on the people closest to him. These were his wife Ann, his tiny baby, and the family that supported and held everyone together – the Hain family in Pretoria, and their fourteen year old son, Peter Hain, who grew up to become a Cabinet Minister in the British Parliament and who is currently in the House of Lords.
The Only White is a story of courage, comradeship and love.
What inspired you to write it?
The bombing of Jo’burg station was a key moment in South African history. I have vivid recollections as a thirteen year old hearing about it, being shocked by it, but also being on the periphery of a group of my mother’s friends who knew him well, talking about him – a lovely person but such a stupid thing to do!
When I read Peter Hain’s story The Pretoria Boy, where he discusses John Harris and the role his family played in supporting him and his wife, and the impact of this on his development, I felt this was a great hook to hang the story on. (Though perhaps hang is an unfortunate term here.)
Why did he do it? What drove him to do something so reckless and damaging? Those thoughts had never left me and I wanted to know more about who he was and what it was like from his perspective. How would a wife respond and would she stand by him? The element of their relationship is tremendously poignant as we have their reaction to themselves and each other in the letters that they wrote.
What was the biggest challenge in writing a play about true events?
It is both more difficult and easier to write a play about real people and events. Having a lot of available information that you are able to draw upon makes it easier. On the other hand, what makes it more difficult is the different perspectives, and ways of seeing and/or remembering that one person has compared to another. Which is the truth? Or do you as the writer just take the more dramatic option.
What are you looking forward to most about staging the play at Chelsea Theatre?
The Chelsea Theatre is a wonderful space. It is a 130 seater with a great theatre, a bar, café and welcoming seated area in and outside of the theatre. The people are also very friendly and there is a great ethos of inclusivity and making things happen there. It suits us very well though, being relatively new, they don’t have an in-built audience.
And what’s impressed you most about the cast?
Oh my gosh, the cast is absolutely fantastic. I have never experienced a group of actors that work so well together, are so close and caring of each other, and are so incredibly talented. Just one example of why we chose the actor who plays John Harris; at audition I found an extraordinary gentleness in the actor (Edmund Sage-Green) that I thought brought a wonderful counterpoint to the violence of John Harris’ action. I have to say, they have a brilliant director to work with (Anthony Shrubsall) and this amazing coming together of talent and hard work and empathy makes for a really fantastic production.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see The Only White?
This play is a story based on fact, depicting a period in Apartheid South Africa, where an act of extreme violence was undertaken by a gentle, loving man who felt that such an act might lead to change for the oppressed people of his country. Although warnings were given to clear the concourse of the railway station, they were not acted upon, showing the callous nature of the government at the time who prevented action being taken, knowing that the carnage would work wonders for their propaganda purposes.
The play shows the horrors of what lies ahead and the way people deal with fighting to the last to try and avert the death penalty. And the way they deal with it is through love, and support and kindness.
This is a beautifully enacted depiction of the story and is both poignant and heartwarming in the way the characters support and love each other.
The Only White by Gail Louw runs at Chelsea Theatre from 4th to 22 April – https://chelseatheatre.org.uk/
