FRESH off the success of her children’s theatre creation Rapunzel Durban actress, entertainer and playwright, Sandy Bigara, is set to stage her newest work, Just Yours.
The romantic drama-comedy is written and directed by Bigara (The Game, Animal Tails I & II, Beswitched, Songs of Love, Rapunzel) and features Arno Wagenaar, Chanel Meager, Christiaan du Plessis and Bigara.
It will stage at the Catalina Theatre soon.
It is 1943 and World War II is raging. An innocent young woman, Ada May Green, arrives in Durban and tries to find her place in the big city. Ada soon meets handsome Daniel Barnes and the sparks fly – because they can’t stand each other! But despite bad first impressions their love grows until it is too powerful to deny. That is, until a war-weary Florence, Ada’s godmother, tears them apart with lies and deceit.
Will their love endure?
In a press release Bigara said the show is set to fill hearts and minds with nostalgic memories.
“I was searching for an idea for a February show and wanted to tackle a romance and I remembered that in October I typed up a faux letter from a Catalina pilot to his love on the eve of his deployment.
The letter sits in a typewriter in the foyer of the Catalina Theatre with our little vintage display there. I decided to tell this fictional letter writer’s back-story.”
On why the play is set in WW II, she said: “The bigger balcony of the Catalina Theatre was the Catalina Control Tower during WW II and I started to think of all the relationships, friendships, shenanigans and mischief that would have happened in and around this area during that time. The characters wrote themselves.
“Barney Bekker is a hoot. I giggled like a schoolgirl as his lines came tumbling forth onto the page. Daniel Barnes is an earnest young man, he finds a very special young lady and almost, almost, messes things up! Ada is naïve and unsure of herself, the Flyboys help her be ‘cool’. Her godmother, Florence – a fiery blonde Scot – watches with horror as Ada and Daniel fall in love before he is deployed. Having lost her own love in World War I, she interferes and… well, whether love will survive is to be seen,” she says.
Bigara said the show is filled with love songs from the 1940s, some performed live by herself.
“Bound within a beautiful setting, stylish clothes from the era and live piano, this gripping history-based love story is set on the brink of a life-changing event.” – Paw Paw Show Company
• Just Yours stages from February 6 to 22. R100 (show only), R160 (show and dinner). More details in Boardwalk on page 2.