Afternoon Play - Gracey and Me

Written by Gillian Plowman Kate returns to South Africa to meet Gracey, the woman she betrayed twenty-five years ago when she was a ten year old staying with her godparents in a luxury suburb of Johannesburg during the height of apartheid. The repercussions of that betrayal have profoundly affected both women, psychologically and physically. The play takes Kate on a journey into her past. She has hired a private detective to track down Gracey who she betrayed as a child. He meets her in Johannesburg and they set out to find her. On the way Kate remembers two hugely dramatic moments of her betrayal and Gracey's punishment. Beauty was the daughter of the housemaid, Gracey, who has illegally secreted her into the hut in the garden where she lives. The two children are swimming together when their play gets out of hand, Kate tells Beauty she has made the water dirty because she is black. The altercation between the two children escalates and the horrific scene becomes a metaphor for the apartheid era as Kate plays out what she has observed of the treatment of black people by white people making her drink the dog's water from a bowl on the floor. Gracey discovers them and unleashes the untold anger of her life upon Kate. Kate retaliates by telling their secret to her Godparents which results in Gracey and her daughter being banished. This haunts Kate as an adult but when she finally confronts her past events unfold which threaten her life, as the play reveals the brutality of the legacy left by apartheid. Kate ..... Harriet Walter Gracey ..... Jenny Jules Peter van Tonder ..... Henry Goodman Katie ..... Lauren Mote Beauty ..... Lakechia Jeanne Godmother ..... Hannah Boyde Stanley ..... Denton Chikura Directed by Annie Castledine Producer: Catherine Bailey A Catherine Bailey production for BBC Radio 4.