Next weekend, the Tracy Performing Arts Foundation will stage the dramatic production of “Boesman and Lena,” a play about the marital trouble of a displaced couple in apartheid South Africa.

The foundation chose the play to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month in February, as well as for the universal theme of relationships and the play’s extreme emotion, co-producer Bernadette Kelly said.

Lena and Boesman, a black couple in a segregated South Africa under apartheid, face major hardships because of the color of their skin.

After their house is bulldozed, they are forced to wander mud flats in search of a spot to restart their lives.

“Boesman and Lena” examines the tense interaction between the two. Still, the cast ultimately hopes the play will give its audience a lesson in hope and forgiveness in the direst circumstances.

It is directed by Michael Wayne Rice, who has been on stage in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. The two main actors, Diann McCannon and Peter Barrett, have 30 years of performing arts experience between them.

At a glance

• WHAT: “Boesman and Lena”

• WHEN: 8 p.m. Jan. 22 and 23; 2 p.m. Jan. 24

• WHERE: Grand Theatre Center for the Arts, 715 Central Ave.

• TIX: $15

• INFO: 831-6858