Dates of run: February 27 – March 17, 2013
Directed by: Kevin Jones
Featuring: Don Kenneth Mason* and Ben Newman* 

“Profile Theatre delivers powerful production…” – The Oregonian
“It’s scary, funny and sometimes shockingly raw…This is intimate, total theatre.” – Oregon ArtsWatch
“Bristles with energy and powerful performances” – Portland Monthly

Brothers Zach and Morris live together in a one-room shack in Port Elizabeth’s black housing slum, unable to escape until enough money is saved from Zach’s job guarding the entrance of a Whites Only park from non-white children. As light-skinned Morris tries desperately to hold on to his only family, he inadvertently creates a chasm that might never close, forcing dark-skinned Zach to ask the most dangerous question: Is love only skin deep?

Athol Fugard originated the role of Morris onstage. Upon its premiere in Johannesburg in 1961, the two-character play was immediately closed and censored by the South African government for having an interracial cast, the first South African play to do so. It was the Off-Broadway production of Blood Knot that launched Fugard’s career as a playwright with American audiences.

Design and Production: Jessica Bobillot, Kristeen Crosser, Corinne Gayle Lowenthal, Sara Ludeman, Ruth Nardecchia, Kate O’Connor, Sharath Patel, Demetri Pavlatos, Amanda Soden, David Stefani and Brent Sullivan

Supplemental Programming:

  • 3/3: Mat Chat Talkback with Production Team
  • 3/10: Talkback Featuring The August Wilson Red Door Project
  • 3/17: The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Portland and Beyond: a historical conversation hosted by Norm Diamond: Distinguished Scholar, Ohio Program in the Humanities, former President, Pacific Northwest Labor College, co-author, The Power In Our Hands with Richard Brown: photographer, citizen representative on Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training; and Elizabeth Ussher Groff: writer, former Director, Southern Africa Program of the American Friends Service Committee
  • Sign interpreted performance March 7.

 

Click here to view the Blood Knot press archive.
Click here to view the Blood Knot program.

 

*Member Actors’ Equity Association, the professional union of actors and stage managers.