Photograph courtesy of Upstream Theatre
Eric J. Conners and Magan Wiles in "Year of the Bicycle."
One day in 2007, two former childhood friends suffer concussions at exactly the same moment. So begins The Year of the Bicycle, a South African play that is having its U.S. premier at Upstream Theater January 27. Andile, a black boy, and Amelia, a white girl, met 10 years ago at the age of 8, when Andile threw his soccer ball over the wall to Amelia’s back yard. (Andile’s mother was a maid for Amelia’s neighbor.) They quickly become friends as they both learn to ride Amelia’s bicycle.
“They have this very intense year of friendship,” says Joanna Evans, Bicycle’s playwright. Family illness and social norms keep Andile and Amelia apart for almost a decade, but then they meet again under much more serious circumstances.
“There are a whole lot of things in their relationship that they need to figure out,” by the time they both get concussions, Evans says. “It’s kind of like an emotional mystery that they have to get to the bottom of.”
The Year of the Bicycle is Evans’ first professional show, and when it premiered in South Africa’s National Arts Festival, it won a Silver Ovation Award. She came to St. Louis for a few days to offer feedback during Upstream’s rehearsals.
“It’s so interesting for me that this play is being put on here now,” says Evans. The play was also staged in Germany. “What I hope comes through from the story is the difficulty of forming a relationship across difference and between two people who society keeps separated. I want to show how complex their relationship is, but how much they both need it.”
Reviews for the play, which runs at a brisk 75 minutes, marvel at the imaginative storytelling, set design, and story, which is unveiled more in concentric circles than logical chronology. “The Year of the Bicycle is one of those works which seamlessly marries physical theater with poetry,” writes one reviewer. “It will grab you by everything you’ve got and shunt your emotions in a direction you could never have anticipated. Unforgettably.”
The Year of the Bicycle, is at Upstream Theater in the Kranzberg Arts Center, 501 N. Grand, Thursday through Sunday, January 27–February 12. All shows 8 p.m. except Sundays, January 29 and February 5 at 7 p.m., and February 12 at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30 general admission, $25 seniors 65 and over, $20 for students. Call 314-669-6382 or visit https://www.upstreamtheater.org/ for more information.
