Vredehoek resident Gavin Werner is set to present two intimate and emotionally charged productions, Meeting Murphy and Spanish Steps, at Muizenberg’s famous Masque Theatre on Wednesday 8 April and Saturday 18 April.
The renowned, volunteer-driven community theatre founded in 1959 by Bertie Stern, is a registered non-profit that provides a diverse, accessible venue for amateur and professional productions.
It features a 170-seat main auditorium and a 60-seat foyer stage. It focuses on promoting local talent and inclusivity.
Werner, who is writer and director of Meeting Murphy and writer-performer of Spanish Steps, says both plays emerged from moments in his own life that lingered long after they had passed.
“Experiences that didn’t go away, that I kept reliving. Writing the plays became a way of engaging with that directly, not just thinking about it, but working it through,” he said.
The play centres on two men reconnecting after a history of bullying in their youth, a dynamic that resurfaces with unsettling immediacy. Werner notes that this collapse of time is something many will recognise.
“You can grow and change, but then walk into something like a school reunion and suddenly feel like the same version of yourself you were years ago.”
At the heart of Meeting Murphy is a tale of revenge, redemption and the blurred boundaries between victim and perpetrator.
Rather than presenting clear-cut moral categories, Werner challenges audiences to reconsider how these roles evolve over time.
“We tend to like clean categories but in reality, especially in formative years, it’s far more fluid. People move between those roles, often without realising it.”
In contrast, Spanish Steps leans more towards comedic drama while still tackling weighty themes of masculinity, memory and fatherhood.
Drawing directly from his own life, Werner describes the performance as less about acting and more about honesty. “It’s not about building a character. It’s about bringing myself to it as truthfully as possible.”
As a director, Werner encouraged his cast to avoid artificial performances and instead connect personally with the material and one another.
The script for Meeting Murphy even evolved during rehearsals, shaped by the instincts and input of the actors.
Key collaborators in this process included Dianne Simpson, who helped shape early drafts, as well as Matthew du Bois and Chris van Rensburg, who were involved from initial excerpts.
More recently, Brent Palmer joined the cast, bringing what Werner describes as a “sharp, questioning eye” that helped refine the final production.
The result is theatre that prioritises immediacy and truth over polish.
“There’s something powerful about recognising something you haven’t quite put into words yourself,” he said.
Staged in the intimate setting of The Masque, these productions aim to dissolve the distance between performer and audience. “You can’t hide behind spectacle,” Werner explained.
“Everything is immediate, and the audience becomes part of it.”
Ultimately, he hoped audiences did not leave with answers, but recognition .
“If people leave slightly unsettled, but more aware,” he said, “then the play has done its job.”
For more details contact Christine Skinner on 082 855 7277.
