Mike van Graan’s poetic solo drama - To Life, With Love – will be staged as a reading featuring Andre Stolz at POPArt as part of the Script tease programme.
John Maytham, a well-known broadcaster with Cape Talk and a Rhodes University-trained actor commissioned multiple award-winning playwright Mike van Graan to write him a one-person play with a blank canvas regarding themes. Inspired by Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal and drawing on Helena Dolny’s book, Before Ever After, Mike developed To Life, With Love featuring the character Thomas Michael Faulkner. Thomas has experienced love, professional success, personal loss and social affirmation. Then, in his sixties, Thomas is diagnosed with a dread disease. There is a great chance of recovery, but Thomas is confronted by his mortality. With many good years ahead, Thomas makes choices about how he will live.
In anticipation of a run later in the year, Andre Stolz will present this hour-long work as a reading for subscribers and angels of MVG Productions as well as the general theatre-supporting public as part of POPArt's ongoing SCRIPT TEASE programme.
To Life, With Love had an extended run in Cape Town, with affirming media reviews including:
"a beautifully rendered mediation on life, end of life and how to live meaningfully and transcend grief and disappointment… Van Graan’s writing is exquisite" Robyn Cohen, The Cape Robyn
"…a deeply human meditation on choice, and the stubborn beauty of living." Karen Rutter, Weekend Special
"…teater wat jou help om sin to maak van die lewe. Dit laat jou gereeld lag, maar bowenal laat dit jou met dankbaarheid vir die wonderlike dele van die lewe" - Laetitia Pople, Die Burger
"The script is beautifully written…a moving one-hander that we should all see" - Jozi and Lara, samsays_sa
