By William R. Wineke
Special To Channel 3000

SPRING GREEN, Wis. -- On the face of it, Athol Fugard's "Exits and Entrances" is just the kind of play most of us would like to avoid on a hot Tuesday night.

Fugard is a noted South African (and American) playwright and his play –- which had its official opening Tuesday night at American Players Theatre –- is about an actor and a playwright, the playwright being Fugard and the actor being the late Andre Huguenet.

Huguenet is ending a once triumphant, now fading, career, and Fugard is, in the beginning, Huguenet's "dresser" and assistant, a star-struck young man who wants his mentor's encouragement, but doesn't really get it.

As I say, for an 80-degree-plus evening, not what we'd plan.

In the hands of APT's Kenneth Albers, however, the characters come alive and the play becomes not about them so much as it is about the rest of us as Albers -- Huguenet -- and David Daniel, the young playwright, explore the meaning of theater and of humanity.

Although the real-life Fugard wrote the play, the story is really about Huguenet, a great classical actor who saw his life's work as bringing the classics to South Africa. The play is set mainly in 1955 and in 1961, a time when Huguenet's quest seemed quixotic and when Huguenet's personal fortunes rose and fell.

Albers provides a stunning performance, particularly early in the play when he recreates the role of Oedipus Rex. The play is performed in the 336-seat Touchstone Theater, so Albers is never more than a few feet from each audience member as he tears his eyes out and laments his fate as murderer of his father and husband of his mother.

Daniel's role is much less dramatic, so he doesn't dominate the stage the way Albers does, but his subtle portrayal of Fugard gives hints of that playwright's tendency toward alcoholism, and offers a spot-on South African accent.

All in all, “Exits and Entrances” turned out to be a good way to spend a hot Tuesday evening. The play will be performed frequently through September.