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 debut play, The Finkelsteins Are Coming to Dinner, premiered at the Alexander Bar & Theatre and the Cape Town Fringe Festival in 2016. 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 in 2017 and 2018 and at the National Arts Festival in 2018. The play was subsequently selected for the Western Cape Schools Festival, the South African National Schools Festival and the Hilton Arts Festival. In 2021, it was translated into Afrikaans for a television adaptation produced by Red Pepper Pictures.
Other works include Madame Butterfly and the German Plumber, which received a staged reading directed by Wessel Pretorius at the Alexander Bar & Theatre, A Mongoose in the Garden, and I Love Your Dad, a queer comedy about love, family and the assumptions we make about the people closest to us.
Alongside his work as a playwright, Kaplan leads the LGBT+ Health Division at the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, where he oversees clinical research, health programmes and advocacy initiatives.
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.”