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Last weekend it was announced that Janet Suzman has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II, and made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

To celebrate this accolade to a founding Fugard Theatre Friend, the Fugard Theatre will present a week of retrospective Suzman films in August/September. Dame Janet has kindly offered two Question and Answer sessions during the week of screenings. The award-winning South African born British actress and director (72), is the niece of the late Helen Suzman, who was also made a Honorary Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989. “I could not find better words than Athol Fugard used in his play Master Harold and The Boys to describe her: Janet Suzman is a “woman of magnitude”,” said Eric Abraham founder of The Fugard Theatre. “She is one of those few actors who can hold an audience in the palm of her hand, even were she to only read the telephone directory. Her contribution to South African and world drama is exceptional. From the masterful television film of Othello, which she directed during the apartheid period (with John Kani as Othello and Joanna Weinberg), to her riveting portrayals of Shakespeare characters on the London stage and roles in motion pictures and television for almost half a century, Janet is up there with the dramatic gods,” said Abraham. The films that will be screened will include: Nicholas and Alexandra (for which she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination) The Draughtsman’s Contract, A Dry White Season (with Marlon Brando), Nuns on the Run, Priest of Love (with Sir Ian McKellan and Ava Gardner) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (with Alan Bates) and her extraordinary production of Othello with John Kani and Joanna Weinberg. Dates for these screenings will be confirmed, and information will be available at the Fugard Theatre box office 021 461 4554 and on the Fugard Theatre website. About the Fugard Theatre: The 280-cinema style seater Fugard Theatre is located within the historic Sacks Futeran building in Cape Town’s District Six, with the renovated Congregational Church Hall in Caledon Street as its entrance. Construction of The Fugard Theatre was underwritten by its founding producer Eric Abraham, and is named in honour of Athol Fugard, South Africa’s greatest playwright. All seating is now reserved and can be booked on line at www.computicket.com or the box office on 021 461 4554. 

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