You may have heard about The Syringa Tree from your friend who "knows theater" raving about it, insisting that you must see it; you may have seen Pamela Gien on Rosie O’Donnell or another talk show; maybe you heard one of it’s impassioned celebrity fans talking about it (Matthew Broderick, Helen Hunt, Diane Sawyer, and Mike Nichols have all been very vocal supporters); or maybe you have simply read the excellent reviews and were intrigued to learn more about it. On this site we will attempt to explain what the experience is like, for those of you who haven’t yet made it to 91st St. to experience it for yourselves, and to give those of you that HAVE come a chance to voice your own feelings and ideas, and to keep in touch with the play’s phenomenal growth. See The Syringa Tree has made East 91st St.- in the excited words of Cherry Jones- the "center of the New York theater world this year!"

The Syringa Tree is a personal, deeply evocative story of an abiding love between two families, one black, one white, and the two children that are born into their shared household in the early 1960's South Africa. Seen first through the eyes of a child, six-year old Elizabeth Grace, as she tries with humor and sometimes palpable fear, to make sense of the chaos, magic and darkness of Africa, we follow their destinies in a story that spans four generations, from early apartheid to the present day free South Africa. In a performance that Lillian Ross of the New Yorker proclaimed a “tour de force”, Kate Blumberg plays twenty four very different characters (black, white, old, young, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Zulu, English, Jewish, etc.), and through her turn-on-a-dime transformations, she gradually reveals not just the complexities of the world they share to us- their dreams, struggles, laughter, and tragic losses- but their shared humanity. When at the end both families are shown to have gained a hard won closure, in compassion and forgiveness, audiences have been left stunned. And changed. The New York Times called it “instantly engaging… a thoroughly persuasive transport to an exotic place and time” and audiences have agreed, many commenting on how they feel they leave having lived through thirty years of another countries joys and sorrows. Somehow it becomes a very PERSONAL experience (according to one person, as much “a life experience as a theater experience”) for each individual audience member.

The Syringa Tree began as an acting exercise in a small Los Angeles acting studio run by Larry Moss, renown acting coach to Helen Hunt, Hillary Swank, Jim Carrey, and Jason Alexander, among many others. Independent film producer Matt Salinger saw Pamela Gien's exercise in 1996, and was “instantly smitten” both by the strength of the story and by the caliber of work, and together the three of them began making plans to bring the Syringa Tree to a wider audience. After two years of workshopping the play at Larry’s studio, the trio opened the play in Seattle at ACT to wide acclaim, awards, and several extensions. It came to New York in September 2000, it was a sensation in London's National Theatre, it can be seen on Television, on video, and it will eventually travel both to Vienna and to Capetown, as well as THROUGHOUT North America. There are plans to tape the trip to Capetown for a documentary, as well as plans for a feature film and a book. The three original members of the "little engine" were extremely happy to share what became a runnaway train with the extremely talented Ms. Blumberg!

On this website- still being built- you may read the critics reviews, you may read audience reviews, or post your own, and you may read biographies of Ms. Gien, Mr. Moss, and Mr. Salinger, and Ms. Blumberg. In the NEWS section you may find information about the Trio airdates, or about purchasing a tape of the production. And of course you may at any time BUY TICKETS through the link to Ticketmaster! Through our “links” section you may click on whichever headlines interest you and read more about our tree’s growth.