The Playwright
Richard Kaplan presents a wry commentary on everything from love, death, sexuality and Jewish identity.— Robyn Cohen, Weekend Argus
Richard Kaplan is a South African playwright and medical researcher based in Cape Town. His plays are tragicomic and character-driven, using comedy, drama, and magical realism to explore grief, love, and identity within queer and Jewish life.
Set in worlds where the living and the dead exist side by side and the ordinary gives way to the extraordinary, his plays feature angels investigating lonely estate agents, dead mothers refusing to leave their sons, and drag queens stumbling towards unexpected grace.
His first play, The Finkelsteins Are Coming to Dinner, premiered at the Cape Town Fringe Festival before transferring to Alexander Bar & Theatre. The production received two Fleur du Cap Theatre Award nominations, while actor David Viviers won the Fringe Fresh Performer Award for his portrayal of James.
His second play, Selwyn & Gabriel, directed by Tara Notcutt and featuring Mbulelo Grootboom and Kai Luke Brummer, was staged at the Alexander Bar & Theatre and at the National Arts Festival. The play was subsequently selected for the Western Cape Schools Festival, the South African National Schools Festival and the Hilton Arts Festival. It was later translated into Afrikaans for a television adaptation produced by Red Pepper Pictures.
Other works include Belinda Butterfly and the Caterpillars, which received a staged reading directed by Wessel Pretorius at the Alexander Bar & Theatre.
Alongside his work as a playwright, he leads the LGBT+ Health Division at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, where he oversees clinical research, health programmes and advocacy to improve LGBTQ+ healthcare in South Africa.
Read the Plays
The script for The Finkelsteins Are Coming to Dinner is available to download from this website. His other plays, including Selwyn & Gabriel and Heterofuckingsexuals & Other Queer Love Stories, are available to read on the New Play Exchange.
On Writing The Finkelsteins
In an interview with Robyn Cohen for the Weekend Argus, Kaplan reflected on the relationship between fiction and personal experience in The Finkelsteins:
“The Finkelsteins is about nobody I know – and everybody I know. None of the characters are based on actual people but they are composites of friends, family, acquaintances and myself. While the experiences are not necessarily my own – except for that bloody dream – the subject matter is close to me. It is fiction drawn from my life and experiences.”