The stars of Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy in the title role
OPPENHEIMER
DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan
CAST: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey JR, Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, with Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh
VENUES: Check the IMAX cinemas in your vicinity
It’s been quite a happening at cinemas around the country (and I think the rest of the world.) It’s even been given a name – Barbenheimer. That refers to the two new movies recently opening on circuit, Oppenheimer and Barbie.
And yes, they couldn’t be more different but for some reason they have both gripped the imagination of cinema goers. Having just seen Oppenheimer, I can see why. Barbie is a more obvious box office hit because apart from a particular phenomenon, the producers have embraced a huge audience with the choice of Greta Gerwig who is regarded as one of the smartest young directors around.
Cillian Murphy is brilliant as Robert Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer is the one that interested me first and perhaps as much because of the hype but also the director Christopher Nolan. And this was to me the biggest surprise.
In short, the film focusses on physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the man leading, cajoling, inspiring the scientists taking part in the top-secret Manhattan Project where years were spent developing and designing the first atomic bomb. What makes this so fascinating is that the film deals with the man who lead the team rather than spotlighting the bomb and how that was developed.
But also, Nolan’s approach caught me by surprise. There are challenges which includes the length of the movie which is three hours. That’s quite an investment – but take it.
Cillian Murphy and Frances Pugh in the roles of Robert Oppenheimer and his passion Jean Tatlock
More even than the facts surrounding the film, it is the film itself and how it was made that truly knocked me sideways. Sometimes the frames move so fast that one conversation moves to a few destinations in one sentence. And it happens seamlessly.
Nolan must have done a ton of work before filming even started. Every frame is a small artwork and the whole rushes by without time being an issue. It’s magnificent.
It’s also a huge bonus if you could see it in an IMAX because of the way it plays with the enormity of the first atom bomb , the explosion and the sound that all of that will produce. But everything with the emphasis on the enormity of the event and how it will reverberate through time. Robert Oppenheimer was always aware that once the first atom bomb was exploded you couldn’t turn back. That would be the start of the biggest arms race …
Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife
And think of current atomic threats in the hands of leaders many take seriously.
But also what draws the crowd I think is a spectacular cast starting with Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer. Not only does he look like the real man, he embodies him in every nuance of his movements and thoughts. It has Oscar written all over it as he holds you in the palm of his hand throughout. Oppenheimer was a maverick, an outsider but also someone who initially liked the celebrity that came with his success of exploding the first bomb – until he didn’t. And that’s where the performance holds sway, a man with many sides and shades. Murphy captures all of that.
Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer watching the first explosion
The supporting cast is no less impressive. Robert Downey Jr plays the protagonist Lewis Strauss, Matt Damon the general, Leslie Groves (and I was again reminded of his strong acting ability) and there’s Rami Malek, Jack Quaid and Josh Hartnett, as well as Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer’s wife and Florence Pugh as his passion Jean Tatlock. Tom Conti does a glorious turn as Einstein, an inspired choice, but then all of them are. And the film needed that.
I could go on and on but rather see it. It was a wonderful unexpected magnificent experience because of a director who told the story with such a good hold on all the larger themes and did it in a way that was so deliciously creative.
Art exhibitions come and go, with some pieces remembered, some purchased and others touching your heart. When the event features the work of someone who has turned himself into your personal artist yet has decided to show his work for the first time, the feelings all round are overwhelming. For me, it was the gift of sharing the art of Dries de Beer and the emotional impact it has had on our lives. DIANE DE BEER gives her biased opinion of an artistic celebration:
Invite designed by Ursa Engelbrecht Curator Carla Spies
When architect/gallerist/curator Carla Spies suggested that her gallery, The Guildy, curate an exhibition for my husband, the reluctant artist (as I have dubbed him), I knew this was the perfect space and opportunity.
No pressure, no sales and for one day only with people we invite who we think will enjoy the work. And that is exactly what Carla and her gallery represent. As an architect, her work is not on the creative side and through the years she knew she had to find a way of scratching that itch.
Even the guests looked like artworks
The gallery was her solution and, having just gone through the whole process of an exhibition, I understand how this works as I do a similar thing by writing about the arts. There’s no direct renumeration, we’re not driven by money but rather by a passion for the arts and how it affects, touches and changes people. It’s the creativity – the process and the outcome and, finally, the joy.
But I knew my artist would feel differently. NO! was the immediate response, but I worked my cause and finally he conceded.
The fabulous thing about this exhibition, which Carla named The Imaginarium of Dries de Beer, was that all the art was there. That is what interested Carla in the first place. She had seen especially his series of faces and was intrigued. It’s her gallery and like me, who only writes about the art that inspires me personally, she only shows work that moves her.
And I was quite clear that the thing I really wanted Dries to showcase was the diversity of his art. Because he has always been compulsive in a constructive way about his art, moving from one thing to the next, exhibiting a theme, yet in very different ways. He has played around in ceramics, cartoons (which he still does daily), scrapyard found objects, which would result in anything from a small human figure to huge installations, and glass tiles in which he made pictures with objects of lesser desire found on his daily walks and changed it into something exquisite.
On the ceramic side, it all began with handmade ceramic zebras painted and then fired for the final result. Thery were unique and each one individual but labour intensive. To really make money – if that were one’s goal – it would have to be mass-produced and then lose that artistic quality that each one displays.
This led to masks and hanging faces which started out as a mass of small and larger cement and ceramic balls which all found a place in our garden. Today those hanging installations, sculpted into different faces and fishes of different kinds are on window sills, against outside and inside walls, hanging outside from poles and trees and even in the shape of gargoyles, each at the end of a pergola pole as decoration. It’s the way he changes and enhances what would just have been another ordinary garden structure. Instead a secret world of chattering ceramic faces and masks emerged
I have written about the work of many artists in an introductory rather than critical fashion. Fine art is something I had to give exposure to because as times grew tough, newspapers and magazines featured less and less specialist writers. Mine was the performing rather than the fine arts, but I knew we had to embrace as wide a range of the arts as was possible – and that’s what I still try to do.
Ceramic gargoyels.
But with this artist’s work, because he and his work are mine, working at a formal institution I couldn’t focus on any of his work. That’s why this exhibition was so important to me and gave me such pleasure. To do it with Carla and her crew, was a dream come true.
Dries, who slowly warmed to the idea of showing his work, and I made the initial selection of what we wanted to show and then Carla and her musician/entrepreneur husband Werner arrived a week before the showing to look at the final selection and help us move the work from home to gallery.
Then the fun really began, as we started hanging the work. This is where Carla and Werner took over while we helped on the side. It’s no easy thing to physically do the hanging and even more specialised is to decide how and where to display each single piece. This is where, I suspect, Carla’s creativity kicks in – and she knows what she wants. We could just stand smiling at the results.
I suspect for Dries it was a new way of experiencing his work. In our house the effect is diminished by it being all over the place. Here it was Dries de Beer in full force – and whether you like it or not, which is a personal choice and what art is all about, this was a special display and one of which even the reluctant artist approved.
I appreciated once again what inspires me most about his art. It comes from within, it’s who he is and how he has conversations with himself and the world – and me.
Also on board were a group of special friends who gathered around me and took over when I really needed help. Writing about the creatives in the food world as well, I have my own favourites and Alicea Malan of Lucky Bread Company https://www.luckybread.co.za/ and Elze Roome of Tashas, Menlyn Main feature on that short list.
I simply asked Alicea about some produce and she said “Leave it to me.” She pulled together a spread with the amazing breads from Lucky Bread https://www.luckybread.co.za/ and then, as importantly, showcased it at the gallery in a way that just adds that edge to any event. Elze Roome https://www.tashascafe.com/locations/pretoria/menlyn-maine/ jumped in with the sweet stuff which was melt-in-the-mouth.
To add yet even more sparkle to the event, Werner on bass and Rynier Prins made exquisite background music, often I think one of the more thankless jobs and yet it fills a room full of people with a sound that’s embracing.
Also part of the picture was one of Carla’s most recent employees, Ursa Engelbrecht. She’s a young woman with artistic flair, was immediately excited, designed the invite and helped out everywhere and anywhere she could. She and Estevan Kuhn also provided music when the first duo needed a break.
So when people ask me about the worth of a single day showing which is what The Guildy specialises in, I can only underline how it brings a group of creatives in different fields together to create a little bit of magic in the world of those who share this kind of passion.
Ursa and Estavan (left) andRynier and Werner (right) making wonderful music.
I know my artist looks at Carla and Werner with eyes that appreciate how they approach life and the world they hope to create. I know he saw how people like Alicea, Elze and Ursa all stepped in to add their special icing to this magnificent cake.
And more than anything, it gave my reluctant artist the chance to see how others viewed his work, to inspire fresh and novel ideas, and to view the future in a way where he shares his work with more people than just me. This was his chance to shine brightly.
If you haven’t heard of the author Mick Herron and the imaginary men and women who are all part of Slow Horses, it’s time to find those books and to stream the first two seasons of Slow Horses which can be seen on Apple TV now. DIANE DE BEER reveals more:
If you have Apple TV, this is one to see.
Those of you who loved the intrigue of John le Carré’s spy novels, lost your heart to his characters with George Smiley leading the pack and still remember Alec Guinness’s portrayal of the seemingly distracted, downtrodden spymaster, will be pleased to know there’s another spy series available to both read and catch on a streaming service.
With a gaping hole left behind by the Le Carré absence, just in time, in steps author Mick Herron. I was told by a friend about the new arrival a few years back, and my husband and I jumped in immediately to tackle the series.
That was a while before the television series was even on the cards.
We were immediately hooked, but for me it was slow going because I had to catch up first with some other freshly published works waiting for review. I was even sent one of the books in the Slow Horses series along the way and quite recently I decided it was time to spoil myself and tackle the last four in the series. And I did so with glee.
Herron is a fantastic writer. His language often has your toes curling, and his characters and their ticks, especially the motley crew who make up the Slow Horses and quickly rule the roost.
Herron’s first thriller, aptly titled Slow Horses, was immediately shortlisted for the CWA Ian Flemming Steel Dagger as well as named one of the 20 best spy novels of all time by the London Daily Telegraph. The second, Dead Lions, won the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, and so the list reads on and on with the awards and praise growing with each new novel in the series.
Once you’ve met the reluctant leader of the pack, Jackson Lamb, you won’t stop smiling at all his antics. He must be one of the most reviled bosses ever created and yet, while he is constantly deriding and humiliating his underlings, he is also first on the scene at any sign of trouble and the one to think up some terrible revenge when even a hair on the head of one of his spooks is pulled out of place.
Slough House, the name of the unappealing offices (if you could reasonably call it that), is where spies from MI5 are sent when they’ve messed up. No one cares what happens to them, borne out by the fact that their boss seems no more than a slouch who has been put on this earth to torture those who are unfortunate enough to serve under him.
While all this might be painting completely the wrong picture, it is difficult not to shout from the rooftops about this exhilarating spy writer who seems to have silently (and sometimes unobserved) risen to the top of the all-time best spy series list. It would be tough to find a reader who disagrees.
What more can one ask for than a spy novel written in a way that’s character-driven yet has a story unfolding which not only keeps you up at night, but also boasts a plot that will keep you engaged as you puzzle your way through the world of espionage?
In the end, if I had to pinpoint the most appealing aspect of a Jackson Lamb novel, it would be the language. To prove my point, a small extract which offers some kind of description of Slough House: “Heat rises, as is commonly known, but not always without effort. In Slough House, its ascent is marked by a series of bangs and gurgles, an audible diary of a forced and painful passage through cranky piping, and if you could magic the plumbing out of the structure and view it as a free-standing exoskeleton, it would be all leaks and dribbles: an arthritic dinosaur, its joints angled awkwardly where fractures have messily healed; its limbs a mismatched muddle; its extremities producing explosions of heat in unlikely places; its irregular palpitations a result of pockets of air straining for escape.”
And then about the ethos: “Slough House was a branch of the Service, certainly, but ‘arm’ was pitching it strong. As was ‘finger’, come to that; fingers could be on the button or on the pulse. Fingernails, now those you clipped, discarded, and never wanted to see again. So Slough House was a fingernail of the Service: a fair step from Regent’s Park geographically, and on another planet in most other ways. Slough House was where you ended up when all the bright avenues were closed to you. It was where they sent you when they wanted you to go away, but didn’t want to sack you in case you got litigious about it.”
And then finaly, just something about the feared leader Jackson Lamb: “Breakfast was two pints of water and four Nurofen. Shaving was out of the question, but he released himself from yesterday’s tie with the kitchen scissors and found a fresh suit, which meant one that had been in his actual wardrobe, if not on a hanger”… and it goes on.
I am now waiting patiently for book no ten in the series. In the meantime I could revisit the television series, two seasons of which have been released on Apple TV and are still available to watch with the promise of a third coming later this year.
When you have lost your heart to a series of books, it’s with trepidation that you watch the live version, the characters and stories you have invested in. But with this one, it’s all systems go. While Gary Oldman didn’t pop into my mind as Jackson Lamb, once the actor had inhabited the man, there was no one else who could have stepped into those slippery Lamb shoes with such relish and robust. And ditto to Kristin Scott Thomas in the role of Lamb’s nemesis as she plays his arrogant and disdainful boss at MI5. There are few actresses who can play elegant haughtiness with such ease. And the rest of the cast complete the picture magnificently.
Mick Herron must be thrilled with this adaptation which so sharply captures the essence of both the people and the place of this much loved series. And hopefully we will be able to catch up on the full series – and a few yet to be written, in the years to come.
If any of the above appeals to you, don’t hesitate. It’s a glorious addiction and one I plan to hold onto for as long as possible!
Published by John Murray, it is distributed by Jonathan Ball locally.
With his latest book Milk The Beloved Country (Umuzi), author Sihle Khumalo speaks his mind on many issues, and with the focus on local, it gives readers the chance to reflect on what they have and what the future holds for this country and its people. DIANE DE BEER spends some time with the man who has much on his mind and likes to share:
At our first meeting I realized that it would be impossible to try to give a summary of who this man, Sihle Khumalo, is.
I culd capture more of this prolific writer by giving you the titles of the books he has already written: Dark Continent – My Black Arse;Heart of AFRICA;Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu; and Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse.
And then the one I will focus on most sharply here, his latest, Milk The Beloved Country. He tells that the first book was the result of his travels from Cape Town to Cairo using public transport. This was also to celebrate his 30th birthday.
In 1999, to celebrate his 24th birthday, he bungee jumped at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe; for his 25th he ran the Comrades Marathon (11hours 40 minutes); for his 27th birthday, in 2002, he started parachuting (on static line) at Pietermaritzburg’s Oribi airport ; in 2003, he did aerobatic flying (as a passenger) at Rand airport.
He currently lives in Johannesburg with his wife and two children. And the two women he dedicates the book to is his mother and his mother-in-law. For me that also speaks volumes and probably more revealing than anything I could add.
Perhaps this is not the kind of book that would have caught my attention if I didn’t have to speak to Sihle publicly – twice – which also meant I read the book twice. That in the end was a good thing, because it was with the second reading that I realised exactly what he was doing. It seems to be all over the place and yet, after a more careful reading, I was starting to get the drift of this very active mind.
Sihle Khumalo will have you thinking. With this smartly tongue-in-cheek book, what had me doing just that from the start, was wondering how he comes up with the concept. And even now I’m still not sure he knows. He has an active mind and personality (if that’s possible) but once you pin him down and start taking his words seriously, he has some very interesting stories to tell and points to make.
Myself (Diane de Beer ) with authors Sihle Khumalo and Deborah Steinmair at the Vrye Weekblad Book Festival at Cullinan earlier in April.
But take note, there is sleight of hand, because it might all seem frivolous, yet it’s anything but.
His previous books are travel-driven, so the research was done while visiting different places, but in this instance, the research had to come in more traditional fashion; libraries for example rather than the excitement of travel.
But he wanted to do it this way and it will be interesting to watch his future adventures to see whether they will be of the physical or mental kind.
The book is neatly divided into three sections, starting with the names of especially smaller towns and villages and where these come from. It’s intriguing and something all of us might have thought of or even discussed with children during tedious journeys, but he makes a study of it. And while there’s much to smile at, he also makes sure to spotlight some sharply observed issues, as this following notice in https://theconversation.com/africa daily email reaffirms:
“Today marks 60 years since Kenya attained internal self-rule from the British colonial powers. Names of places and other urban symbols were used as tools of control over space in many African countries during the colonial period. This strategy was epitomised by the British, who applied it vigorously in the Kenyan capital Nairobi from the late 1800s. Street names celebrating royalty and officialdom dominated the central part of the city, while African names were relegated to peripheral neighbourhoods. Melissa Wanjiru-Mwita explains the ways in which this strategy actively alienated the native African majority while promoting the political, ideological and racial dominance of the colonialist.”
What tickled me though is remembering the fuss from the white population about changes to the names of towns and provinces, for example when we were just staring out on our democracy in the early 90s. I can remember the anxiety expressed while wailing about their heritage ….
Much of the name changing has happened without fuss but, as Sihle reflects, many more changes wouldn’t be a bad idea – including the name of our country which to his mind, points to a destination rather than something which would reflect the people living there. I still have to scratch my head to remember and hold on to some of the name changes, but they do make sense and feel much more part of the continent, the country and all its people. It is the diversity of the country that is our strength and it should be reflected in as much as possible publicly so that it becomes commonplace.
The second section starts with the intriguing quote: You’ve got to find some way of saying it without saying it (Duke Ellington) and this is something that I personally think drives Sihle’s writing.
Titled The Power Brokers he dives right in, exploring our very own secret society, the Broederbond. He starts with the role players and their influence and then moves on to the private sector and intelligence.
As with the names of towns, which most South Africans might say they’re familiar with, the Broederbond because of its secrecy was intriguing to many, but for those of us not invested in the politics of the apartheid state, we thought we knew more than we actually did. And this, coming from an outside point of view as well as after the fact (or so we hope!), reminds us where we come from when we start pointing fingers.
Politics has always been about power and we can only hold thumbs that it comes from a good place – even if just most of the time.
Drawing a line through all that secrecy, he moves to different groupings of people including the freemasons; the unions and then couples the taxis, religion and traditional leaders together concluding with The Masses and sadly, the fact that we the people warrant less than a third of a page, says it all. That and the first sentence: There is nothing significant to report here.
What I also like about this particular section is the comparison of the past with the present. Corruption for example, we all speak about it as if it’s something new. Read on …
And in conclusion, Sihle tells us to Pause and Ponder:
Two weeks after the 2021 insurrection, The Washington Post described our “celebrated rainbow nation” as the “global poster child of economic inequality where deep poverty sits in the shadow of astronomical wealth.” If that doesn’t make you weep, nothing will.
He sums up the apathy by focusing first on the Feeding frenzy on state resources. I know that surprised me most post 94. I didn’t think that the leaders would turn their back on the very people who needed their assistance most. (And I do understand that they had the best examples in the former white regime).
For those of us puzzled by the ruling party’s elective conferences, he takes a closer look at: 2007, 2012 and 2017.
The Constitutional Court and the judiciary also come into play. It’s under attack in so many countries, the US and Israel, to name a few? It’s always been my beacon of hope, and I do still in spite of, believe that our people, our strength will pull us through. Sihle speaks his mind as he does on the following hair raising issue: Is South Africa a failed state? And when exactly was it captured?
And then finally, on a second reading, this lucky packet of a book truly spoke to me. Not just about what he was writing about but also learning more about this man with his wandering mind. I have heard different opinions about his writing. I cannot speak to any other than this latest book.
Some could argue that Sihle Khumalo is a man of too many seasons. But he speaks his mind and where that takes us is what appealed to me. As a fellow South African, I want as many opinions as are out there because in the end, most of us just want to be left to get on with our lives. And, if possible, to have a government that lends a helping hand. Life is tough enough without any extra hindrances.
And while some might be milking the beloved country, we should remember what we have and that the people and the place are real strengths and not something to mess with.
Sylvaine Strike, director/actor/playwright and any other creative word one can dream up, teamed with three other brilliant creatives, Toni Morkel (director), Andrew Buckland (fellow actor) and Tony Bentel, musical genius to create the dreamily magical Firefly currently in its last week at the Pieter Toerien Theatre at Montecasino. Having seen it for the third time at the weekend, this is a copy of my original review to encourage anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, to go. It will warm your heart and the glow will last for the longest time.
DIANE DE BEER reviews:
Scenes from Firefly with Sylvaine Strike and Andrew Buckland:
Pictures by Nardus Engelbrecht
I was blessed to see Firefly at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre with the emergence of live theatre following the pandemic.
The bewitching Firefly, which as one of the first Covid-19 impacted productions saw light of day as a Woordfees digital production, made a magically mesmerising transition. I had lost my heart earlier to the filmed production and was excitedly inquisitive at how that particular story – with many filmic tricks up its sleeve – would translate and transform on stage.
But this particular creative quartet (Strike, Andrew Buckland, Toni Morkel as director and Tony Bentel on piano) are the perfect combo. This is their theatrical landscape. Give them a stage and they will be telling stories in such an imaginative way, it becomes a visual feast.
Because they have all worked together, they understand each other’s strengths, and Morkel could stretch that piece of string intuitively with fantastically imaginative and explosive pyrotechnics.
Buckland and Strike are a brilliant blend of artistry with an instinct for detail that holds your attention gently yet persistently. Storytelling is their forte, aided by the fact that they have an endless supply of tools to draw on to embellish a wink or the final lift of a foot to express and underline the tiniest emotion.
It is theatre at its best when it has you smiling from start to finish because of the artistry, the wizardry of the production, the perfection of the coupling, and just the sheer audacity of the storytelling.
No matter how or why, just immerse yourself and see what happens when Saartjie Botha commands two artists to give her a production in the purest style of theatre.
If you have seen the digital version that’s a bonus, because to witness how one story can be told in such magnificent splendour in two completely different approaches is truly special and quite rare. The one had all the bells and whistles and worked like a charm. But here, with Strike and Buckland live on stage with just themselves to grab hold of their audience and cast that spell, the essence of theatre comes into play – and again I willingly lost my heart.
Add to the two artists on stage, the magnificence of Wolf Britz’s set and props as well as starstruck-inducing lighting and the keyboard genius of Bentel’s soundtrack that holds every emotion so thrillingly in a familiar yet completely Bentel-constructed composition.
If you want to see how the best make theatre with their instincts, intuition and imagination, don’t miss the sparkling Firefly. Yet don’t think for one second that the miracle unfolding on stage didn’t come with buckets of blood, sweat, tears and ENDLESS talent. Part of the theatrical trickery of this foursome is to present something that is this skilled as seemingly effortless.
It’s brilliant and personally I hope to see this travel around the country casting its spell throughout. We are desperately in need of this kind of adult fairy tale in these tumultuous times.
And with every fresh viewing, they’ve added fresh insight and sparkle if that’s even possible.
Book at Webtickets for any of the shows from tonight until Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 3 and 8pm; and Sunday at 2pm for their final bow.
If you think you know everything about Winnie and Nelson Mandela, award-winning author Jonny Steinberg will probably change your mind with his insightful portrayal of a couple who held the world’s attention for the longest time. Having read the book, DIANE DE BEER listens to the author speak about his latest endeavour:
Pictures from the book courtesy of the publishers
When I first spotted the book Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage (Jonathan Ball), it was the author Jonny Steinberg who caught my attention.
Not that the Mandelas aren’t worthy, simply that I didn’t think another book on the Mandelas could shed new light. But Steinberg changed that presumption.
From the first time I had to read a Steinberg book – as he was going to be a guest speaker at one of our newspaper’s book lunches – I was a fan.
Author Jonny Steinberg
The Number, which dealt with gangs, was the one that did it. I had very little interest in the subject, thought I knew enough, but having read Steinberg’s well-researched and analytically astute account, I wasn’t going to miss any of his books again.
And when I saw he was to be one of the speakers at the Franschhoek Literary Festival 2023 where I was invited to do an interview with the delightful Nataniël, I was sold on reading and listening to the author’s conversation with Hlonipha Mokoena, an associate professor and researcher at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) where she specialises in African Intellectuals.
I picked the right one. Portrait of a Marriage should have been my clue because this is what this author does. He takes a topic which might not have crossed your radar in any sense of the word, and turns it on its head in a way that pulls you in and grabs your interest. It’s a gift and one that has turned him into one (if not the top) of our best non-fiction writers.
And one of the first obstacles he encountered was a feeling of shame because he found himself prying into the private world of these two icons – once again. Initially, he was going to write two books, one on each of these individuals, until someone pointed out that one would perhaps be more sensible and, ultimately, probably better.
This is where his own thoughts probably gathered momentum and insight. The question he wished to explore was Nelson’s sense of being and how much that was entwined with Winnie, especially while in prison – which was a punishing 27 years long.
Nelson and Winnie, 1958, probably shortly before their wedding. Eli Weinberg, UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives.
What Steinberg realised was that when imprisoned, Nelson didn’t know Winnie that well. That’s when a fantasy of the woman he loved started emerging. She became the dominant figure in his head. When a great man is written about, his personal life is obscured but the opposite is true for a woman. And this is where the blessing and curse of the Mandela name came into play.
With Nelson’s incarceration, the impact on Winnie and her two daughters was intense on many different levels. For instance, Nelson understood himself as head of the family and he wanted to preserve his wife and their marriage.
But this became difficult in prison because of their compromised relationship. All their conversations were recorded and transcribed. And again, it is these transcriptions that gave the author entrée and heightened insight into the Mandela couple. Yet in some ways they also made him a reluctant participant.
Prisoners breaking stones in the courtyard outside the leadership section on Robben Island. Nelson’s cell window is on the far right. Copyright of Cloete Breytenbach, courtesy of Leon Breytenbach.
Many issues come into play. Because they were being recorded, something they were aware of, these intimate conversations were compromised from the start. For Steinberg it became a compromising decision. Could he use these conversations without compromising the couple’s dignity? “It’s unusual to eavesdrop in this way,” he explained.
For example, the pettiness of an incarcerated Nelson was one of those situations for Steinberg, yet he knew if he wanted to write the book, he needed the information.
From very early on, Winnie used her sexuality as power, says the author. And Nelson in a similar vein was always very aware of how he looked in the suits he used to wear. Unusual at the time and with his presence, an additional bonus. “They understood that their very being was a commodity,” notes Steinberg.
One of the first photographs of Winnie Madikizela to be published. Bantu World/Arena Holdings.Winnie and daughter Zindzi leaving court in Bloemfontein, 1977. Winnie was charged with breaking the conditions of the order banning her to Brandfort. Bailey’s African History Archive/Africa Media Online.
Beauty complicated Winnie’s life. Right from the start, she was born into the struggle which determined her life. She understood how to pick winners and forget the losers. She also knew how to get under someone’s skin. Few people who met her could resist her and were left untouched.
In fact, it is the effect the Mandelas had individually and together that Steinberg explores and captures so well. Would life have been different if the couple had been less aware of their pulling power, their value as a commodity?
Winnie for example couldn’t be alone and always knew that she had to deliver on the expectations of others. She had to be what they wanted her to be. She even told tales about her childhood from very early on.
To protect herself, her reality often had to be concealed. Steinberg explains: she became the symbol of Black womanhood. She was able to become what people wanted and had a sense of her role in public life, believing that she was the centre piece.
For Nelson it was Fort Hare where the foundation of leadership was born.
When they came together, Winnie understood what it meant to be seen. The mission schools invested in the idea that Black men should marry Black women and the Mandelas represented that myth of the power couple. “Their marriage becomes a symbol for the struggle for freedom.”
Nelson and Winnie Mandela at the rally held to celebrate Nelson’s release at FNB Stadium near their Soweto home on February 13, 1990. nelson spent the previous night, his first bnack in Johannesburg, alone in a suburban house near Lanseria Airport. Photo by Udo Weitz/AP/Shutterstock (7364405a)
Nelson understood the power of his and Winnie’s story with the focus on the romance between them. Their power did represent a nation and yet, they ended up being political enemies. Is there anyone in South Africa who lived through their story and wasn’t shattered by the dissolution of their marriage?
The irony of their relationship was that for Nelson his greatest fear for his country was civil war, while his wife was the embodiment of everything he feared.
He becomes a powerful person, but in prison – and out of touch with what is happening. He is locked up by and with people who hate him and when he escapes, he does so in his imagination, The essence of Winnie’s life is her internal world of fire.
I was completely mesmerised by Steinberg’s deeply felt analytical writing about South Africa’s most powerful couple. Even before the advent of social media, with Nelson Mandela imprisoned and his wife under constant surveillance, they captured and kept the attention of the world.
Steinberg tells that story magnificently and with fresh insight and focus.
Meeting up with two of the four primary participants inthe South African Pavilion of the Biennale Architectura 2023 in Venice, it quickly becomes clear that it takes a village to raise a pavilion, as the pamphlet specially designed for visitors acknowledges. DIANE DE BEER talks to lecturer Stephen Steyn with Carla Spies (who is responsible for co-ordinating the whole project) about this year’s architectural adventure:
Stephen Steyn en Carla Spies on the build in Venice.Emmanuel Nkambule at work on the project in Venice.Stephen Steyn studying the plans in Venice.Sechaba Maape with one of his printed sketches which is part of the Organization of Non-human beings concept.
When the core group of Carla Spies (Spies Architects), Stephen Steyn (lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design at TUT), Dr Sechaba Maape (senior lecturer at the Wits School of Architecture and Planning) and Dr Emmanuel Nkambule (senior lecturer at the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design at TUT) got together, they played with the idea that we live in a unique country and that being in this place affects how we live.
That is where they wanted their focus to be and what they hoped to visually explore and exhibit at the Biennale.
All in the field of architecture, their interest and research were aligned, which meant that each one brought something specific to the project.
Digital visuals as part of the South African Pavilion.
Stephen explains that we identify with things, creatures, ideas and, most significantly, other people. Identities, which are what drive this project, like walls, contain, convene and comfort us, but should they be too solid and too insistent, they imprison us. “It is something that defines you,” he explains, “but it shouldn’t be seen as just one thing.”
Between the abstract binary poles of ‘freedom’ and ‘containment’ there is architecture. By using our imaginations, we choose how we identify as active, conscious agents. He argues that while a space might define its occupants, it shouldn’t confine them.
Before the ‘primitive hut’, in fact, before the wall itself was conceived of as a construction, the natural world had supplied us with the architecture of the cave. The cave wall is simultaneously a containing element, and a surface of representation. Beyond this wall exists another world – intimately connected to our own, but with its own logics and forces.
The hanging ropes starting to take shape. The group from Kent&Lane who fastened the ropes to the tiles for the eventual hanging.
The future is unknown. From that darkness, full of both fears and hopes, architects pull images which, like self-fulfilling prophecies, become the future itself through construction.
It is not fail proof; like any prophecy, it remains vague no matter how clearly articulated. And it is always subject to the influence of enormously varied and powerful forces as it travels from the world beyond the surface of representation – where the future and the past co-mingle – to our own.
And part of their quest was to reach out to the pre-colonial past, into the present post-colonial era to determine the future. Histories are alive and should constantly be revised, because so much has not been recorded in traditional ways.
The main pavilion structure (designed by Stephen and realised by Carla with the help of many others), invites visitors to a ritual performance of collective identification, community formation and initiation.
Then the exhibition unfolds and reveals itself through three zones.
Five individual weavers were on board to make the woven artefacts which would represent scaffoldingThe social structures of the Bokoni are represented by weaving practices.
Zone I is titled The Past Is the Laboratory of the Future, and traces historical links to the architectural representation of social structures as documented in pre-colonial southern-African societies.
Scattered over 10 000 square kilometres of grassland in Mpumalanga lie the ruins of a vast civilization known as the Bokoni. The architecture of the Bokoni consisted primarily of two materials: permanent, dry-stacked stone, and ephemeral, hand-woven grass.
Rather than captured in books, the social structures (how they lived and functioned) of the Bokoni are preserved in the visible plan forms of their homesteads, and are represented by weaving practices, which can only be inferred from sub cultures still practising grass weaving today. For this element, five individual weavers were brought together to make woven artefacts that serve as scaffolding for another construction; that of a social as well as a professional network, and thus representing a community.
Part of Nkambule’s model which represents a “modern”Bokoni society.
They also found a digital way of showing the enduring solidity of the dry-stacked stone used in the construction of a Bokoni homestead, which can be accessed by a visitor to the pavilion on their smart phone.
This contemporary interpretation of traditional social practices, as they are manifested in spaces and thresholds still being built today, connects our distant history with our present and, through re-interpretation, sets new trajectories for the future.
Zone II is titled The Council of (non-human) Beings, and contains contemporary drawings on the topic of animism in architectural practice.
Here the work of Dr Maape is presented in a space inspired by the caves of Kuruman in South Africa — spaces that are dark and removed from day-to-day life, and primarily used for initiation rituals.
Venice Biennale
In this setting, large digital prints of the living landscape, drawings that are themselves set in blackness, emphasise the value of dark and black spaces within the cultural practices of indigenous communities of South Africa.
Initiates are challenged to face their fears by facing the stereotypes of ‘dark/black as evil’, the ‘dark continent’ or ‘black magic’, inverting and exposing the false and sinister narrative of the metaphor of ‘light’ or ‘enlightenment’ in its colonial manifestation.
Part of Nkambule’s model which represents a “modern”Bokoni society.
Combining these influences with the indigenous knowledge of his home, Maape generates works that question the way we see the earth on which we design and build.
He proposes a practice that seeks the council of all beings, human and non-human, in the production of architecture, and suggests that it is in reframing concepts like ‘context’ or ‘site’ that we may be more responsive to our current planetary crises
Zone III is titled Political Animals, and presents the organizational and curricular structures of South African architecture schools as architectural objects.
They invited students and staff from South African schools of architecture to construct sample representations of the Laboratories of the Future in which they are embedded and of which they are part. The competition format was adjusted to engage with Stephen’s research and curatorial project, resulting in six entries constructed with the assistance of Johannesburg-based ModelArt.
In the process of being transformed.
Most of this has been done in South Africa, because of the rand/euro exchange. Carla flew to Venice this a month ago to start co-ordinating the installation of the pavilion and the rest of the crew involved in the setting up, including the other three core members, followed a week later.
It is a major undertaking, but if one views their narrative (some of which I hopefully captured) with images of what’s to come, the intent and inclusive nature with which the project was put together and run, South Africans should be holding thumbs and be proud of this young team of architects who have taken our architectural heritage with visions of the future to represent us at the prestigious 18th Biennale Architectura 2023.
* The 18th International Architecture Exhibition, titled The Laboratory of the Future and curated by Lesley Lokko, will be open from 20 May to 26 November 2023.
Pictures taken off the screen by directors Toni Morkel and Jaco Bouwer during the film shoot:
If you haven’t yet seen Sylvaine Strike’s wondrous Firefly, Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre is presenting another season from May 19 to June 11. It’s a once-in-lifetime theatrical experience with two seasoned artists stepping into the magical world of storytelling in a way that plays with your imagination in the best possible sense. If you want to know more, see below. This is the story written when they first stepped onto stage following covid:
The Countess Pafanesca in the Vodka Tango
When you are excited by the group of artists who have come together to make theatre, sparks can fly. And that’s exactly what can happen with the first live run of Firefly, a production that was created to celebrate live theatre. DIANE DE BEER speaks to a few of the artists involved:
Theatre fans are blessed with the latest Sylvaine Strike, Andrew Buckland and Toni Morkel collaboration as they bring Ferine and Ferase (which was filmed by Jaco Bouwer for the Woordfees digital programme) to life on stage – as it was originally planned.
This is the second time this trio have combined their creative talents (the first was in the much lauded Tobacco and the Harmful Effects Thereof) even if the roles have been switched. Firefly was written by Sylvaine Strike and Andrew Buckland and devised for the stage by the full company (Andrew, Sylvaine Toni Morkel, Tony Bentel) and directed by Toni Morkel with Tony Bentel on piano..
Sylvaine Strike and Andrew Buckland at play.
The initial name was derived from two chemical components luciferin and luciferase, which exist in a firefly’s bum and make it glow, explained Sylvaine. “So one without the other can’t make light, they have to be together to glow. Lots of fireflies in this show.” And that is why it is now called the more familiar Firefly.
The play was first created on commission by head of the Woordfees Saartjie Botha in September 2020, three-quarters of the way through the first tough lockdown. The idea was to create something that would show audiences why theatre is unique and exciting. Saartjie didn’t want a big set, she didn’t want audiovisuals, no multimedia, only pure theatre. “We want body and craft and what the actor is,” was the instruction.
Because of lockdown, they started writing remotely through October, November and December and in mid-January last year (2021) met in a rehearsal room with their director. With Tony Bentel on piano, they began to develop the story on their feet to find a common language between Sylvaine and Andrew, who both have very specific styles. But when this trio are tasked to make theatre, that’s exactly what they do.
It’s all in the telling of the tale.
They discovered and developed a mutual style for the two actors largely based on clowning duos. Think Laurel and Hardy, for example, that kind of world, very much a nostalgic, romantic story where they play three different characters each, with the narrators the main characters called … Ferine and Ferase. They have a backstory of their own, which they tell as travelling players of Bucket’s End. It’s a time of magic and wonder which allows you to sit back, be transported and dream, a luxury in these times.
“It’s beautiful, it’s very physical, it’s gorgeously costumed with each a standard clowning costume that transforms into a couple of things,” Sylvaine embroiders.
Every detail tells a story.
From the start it was meant to play on stage and they had a short trial run with a 45-minute version. But this all had to take on a different hue when live changed to digital and they spread their special brand of fairy dust.
The full play was filmed with Sylvaine enchanted with Jaco’s extraordinary transformation from stage into film, shot in studio, all in black and white, inspired by old movies. And those of us lucky enough to have seen it, agree.
It was delightful to witness how they adopted and adapted for the new medium with all the elements colliding and fusing.
And now they’re back on stage and it will be marvellous to be experience yet another transformation. Personally, I can’t wait!
Crafting a clutch of characters with craft and creativity.
Sylvaine and Andrew make perfect sense together and then to have the extraordinary Toni Morkel directing is genius.
As she has often been directed by Sylvaine and performed with Andrew, she was terrified yet thrilled when asked but she trusted her instincts because all three of them know one another well and understand each other’s particular theatre language.
“I’m very excited to do it live,” says Toni, who has just started with rehearsals again. These are two actors who know how to act with their whole being and she finds herself smiling as she watches them go through their moves. “I’m living my dream,” says this consummate theatre maker.
The great difference between the screen and stage version is most specifically the sets. The two actors with their costumes and imagination have to construct their world on stage. And while it is sometimes frustrating to remember what they could do on film, the stage version is what they envisioned from the start.
“We wanted to create a play that would travel easily and anywhere – whether we had lights, curtains, even a stage,” she says. And knowing what they have achieved in the past together and individually, this is not an impossible ask. It has always been part of their theatre ethos, and while it might have been initiated by a scarcity of funds, it also focused their imaginations magnificently.
Andrew Buckland and Sylvaine Strike in Firefly.
“I know their world, their physical ability and strength and how they work,” she says about the process. “What we are relying on is good old-fashioned storytelling.”
She does have two more aces up her sleeve with Wolf Britz again making magic with his wondrous lighting and he has a few more tricks in the bag. And there’s Tony Bentel’s wizardry on piano. “I can’t help but gush when speaking of his astonishing ability. He has a world of music in his body,” is how she explains this gifted musician who accompanies the two actors live.
“For any section of the play, he comes up with five or six different musical suggestions and because he is adept with improv, he can embellish what the actors are trying to express at any moment. I am constantly in awe of what he has arranged musically.
Liza Grobler Festival Artist and the winner of the art prize captures the essence of her Karoo which constantly changes.
Art has always played an important role at the festivals, with the Klein Karoo National Festival one of my favourite viewing venues. DIANE DE BEER tells you why:
It has to do with the place, because they have easy access to different venues and spaces, but perhaps because of the length of the festival, it has also meant that you have time to meander and really take note of the art.
Another reason might be the more recent introduction of curator Dineke van der Walt. Her choice of themes and artists has been unusual, varied and always presenting a large number of artists who I had no knowledge of.
That doesn’t necessarily mean anything except that I don’t pay enough attention during the year and the festivals mean that artists from around the country are on display.
Curator Dineke van der Walt on one of her many walk-abouts. Picture: Hans van der Veen.
This year was no exception and I was lucky enough to catch one of Van der Walt’s walk-abouts which for this art fan is always a bonus and a learning experience. Sometimes the artists or the curators are around and do the talking, but other times, Van der Walt told the story. Keep this one in mind for the future.
This year’s theme very aptly was Hide and Seek: Reimagined Histories. It’s about taking a much wider and more representative look at the world. For far too long, stories have been told from a specific vantage. It has long been time to fling open those doors and allow the light in. We all gain from a wider and more honest perspective – on every level.
There are too many artists and venues to include here, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t many more worthy of a mention. Simply that I had to make a choice, and for the moment, these were my picks.
Two stood outside of the parameters of the St Vincent Building which exhibited most of the art. Another well-deserved extension of Karoo Kaarte, was yet again a fantastic example of how art can include a much wider audience as well as introduce participants to a new way of expressing themselves.
Collages and narratives feature strongly in this project and this time they were displayed in full view of everyone in town because at some point they would have passed these beautifully illustrated windows and stopped by to see what was happening.
The pictures best tell the story that is one that should just keep on running. Here are some of the collages in the building where they presented daily workshops.They had many contributions and one they cleverly slipped into the exhibition space was the way they re-imagined children’s games from the past ,which some of us might remember like kennetjie, skaloeloe, drieblik and gaatjie. These were then explained in a pamphlet with instruction-driven drawings to show the way. It’s also another way of appealing to the youngsters attending the festival.
The other was a series of site specific installations which apparently were meant to be quite hidden, but for hurried festinos it might have been a hazard rather than an adventure.
Three derelict buildings were selected as the backdrop for Norman O’Flynn and ONE. with the trio of installations titled Transparent. The idea was to lift these structures, which have probably for many years gone unnoticed, out of their environment by applying a quite ordinary yet eye catching pattern.
What they were hoping to achieve was to show the way society deals with issues like poverty, inequality and violence in a community, by turning a blind eye.
It was a wonderful exercise apart from the difficulty in finding especially one of the installations. The point about hidden had already been drawn by picking these structures all on the edge of society.
Art is enough of a niche not to add obstacles to further shift it closer to the edge.
Kanna for Best Presentation – visual arts, sponsored by Absa: Liza Grobler – Inkommers, laatkommers & laatlammers, as well as the Droom installation”:
And then moving inside to be enveloped by the colourful explosion of the Festival Artist. Liza Grobler dabbles in many different ways of making art. With the title Inkommers, laatkommers en laatlammers, this recent Oudtshoorn inhabitant was clearly stating her case.
Pictures Hans van der VeenThe work is titled Queen of the Night and beaded by a group called
Qaqambile Bead Studio., a small business who work with contemporary artists who produce these panels out of glass seed beads. They have been working together since 2004 and have produced more than a 100 panels.
From her side, there’s an exuberance, an energy and enthusiasm that’s catching. She targets the imagination not only with her variety of work but also with the way she invites you to engage with her art.
Stringing along while playing with your mind.
There’s a playfulness that’s engaging and yet her work is loaded with meaning if you take the time to explore and engage. And here the title took you by the hand and pointed the way.
A croched installation with the word dream done in eight different languages by Liza Grobler and local creatives the ReWOLusie. Picture Fahiem StellenboomThe collective responsible from ReWOLusie. Picture: Hans van der Veen
As did her outside installation with the word DROOM in eight different languages. She also encourages others to dream by having workshops and including other Oudtshoorn creatives to collaborate.
Another artist’s work that grabbed my heart was titled Untitled: the Dumisani Mabaso Retrospective. I was immediately bowled over by the work, the emotional impact, the diversity, the way Mabaso moved from one visual look to the next.
A city scape.Playing with the rainbow nation. Dumisani Mabaso’s Visiting the Sick.
Only then did I wonder about the artist and why I had never seen or perhaps noticed his work before? He was a painter, a master printmaker and a jazz musician, and all of these influences played a role in his art.
His approach was gentle but, living from 1955 to 2013, his art spoke to the time and the conditions of the disenfranchised and disaffected. And he never stopped. His was always a fight for the poor and the working class and for their emancipation.
A trio of Mabaso sketches that reminds of costume portraits with their delicacy.
This retrospective resulted from consultations with the Mabaso family by the William Humphreys Gallery about the importance of underlining his importance and contribution to South African art.
We are the richer for this inheritance.
Johan Stegman’s solo ‘n Goeie dag vir ‘n slag
Two other notables include the work of Johan Stegman who was very articulate in explaining the title of his exhibition: ‘n Goeie dag vir ‘n Slag.
It’s all about the one who writes the history and from where it is interpreted. Rather than argue the facts, he takes the battle of Blood River, the legendary fight between the Voortrekkers and the Zulus, and investigates it from different angles with the idea that this will offer different perspectives.
Included are other works which immediately point you to the way his mind works.
In another grouping, Is ons nog ‘n ding, he smartly invited Lawrence Lemaoana to co-curate with a title exploring the use of the term Afrikaner which can be used or abused by white Afrikaans artists to explore their shared needs and desires.
Mary Sibande as part of another perspective in Is ons nog ‘n dingThe zone of being and non being explored in Is ons nog ‘n ding
The white artists’ lager only gains huge perspective when the work of a few outsiders is included, in this instance that of Lemaoane and his wife, Mary Sibande. You cannot find a more powerful art couple to make this point.
The worth of any work only comes into play when it is compared with others.
As already said, there are many other exciting examples, and the engaging and provocative approach of the art at this year’s festival again contributed to many conversations, in general and in particular, that is what it is meant to evoke.
Festivals, each one of them, are their own creatures. They’re put together in a way that hopes to attract audiences and once they’re there, will feed and nourish them in many different ways. That’s exactly what this year’s Klein Karoo National Festival achieved and here are just a handful of reasons why. DIANE DE BEER gives her impressions of some of the best:
Pictures: Hans van der Veen
Picture (above) capturing the Karoo by Fahiem Stellenboom.
First the music productions:
Stylish simplicity of Woordmusiek staging.
Woordmusiek: One of the toughest things is to keep a stage/performance career going. Coenie de Villiers knows this.
Stylish simplicity of Woordmusiek staging. (Van der Veen)
Especially on the music side. Even if someone like De Villiers is hugely popular, his music part of the Afrikaans lexicon, and his performance style slick and always smartly rehearsed.
It’s quite something to keep reinventing yourself, however. How long will an audience keep listening to the same songs done in exactly the same style and presentation?
Coenie de Villiers (Van der Veen)
De Villiers has always had the key to renewal: collaboration. And while that can also work against you because it can be seen as too gimmicky, he has the musical and performance nous to make it work – and in this instance, brilliantly.
With this one, he decided to focus on his lyrics. He cleverly invited three of our top actors, all with distinct voices – Jana Cilliers, Vinette Ebrahim and Antoinette Kellermann – to read his lyrics as if poems, which they are when done in this way. And in between, he performed his music, some with, and others without song.
Voices that opened vistas.
The staging was stylish without any frills, and guitar genius Mauritz Lotz provided another musical element – and voila, it was a sublime performance with not a note or sound out of place.
Anders/Eenders: a musical ensemble that sparkled. Each individual performer had his/her own style and together, they blend and cook musically.
There’s the superb songbird Sima Mashazi with the extraordinary voice and stage presence; African guitar genius Louis Mhlanga who is as gentle as his music is glorious; the exuberant Riaan van Rensburg on percussion; keyboard king Ramon Alexander; and brilliant producer/bass Schalk Joubert who always looks as if he is enjoying making music while finding the best sounds.
The fact that they all compose and perform their own music adds to the special sound they create as a group. It is the best of who we are, with music that covers the spectrum and tells stories that criss-crosses the country and holds us all together.
You walk out of there overwhelmed and bouncing with African rhythms. It’s a blast and so much part of the South African fabric.
Kanna for Best Presentation – music, sponsored by Castle Lager: Ver innie wêreld Kittie ; Kanna for Best Ensemble, sponsored by Kunste Onbeperk; Ver innie wêreld Kittie
David Kramer in conversation with Hugo TheartDavid and André Terblanche.
Ver Innie Wêreld Kittie: It might be an intimate setting, but it’s a huge story with heart – and one of David Kramer’s best. I loved the intimacy of the staging with only four dazzling actors/singers (Dean Balie, Rushney Ferguson, Jenny Stead and André Terblanche) and two musicians, Nick Turner and Yvan Potts.
In 1952, Doris Day and Frankie Lane had a hit with Sugarbush, which was apparently written by Josef Marais (the stage name of Joseph Pessach). Marais and his wife Rosa de Miranda became hugely successful in the US as a folk duo who sang Afrikaans songs translated by Marais into English.
Back home and much later, Kramer hears about Marais’s talent because these two musos both grew up in Worcester. But no one remembers Marais, except Renaye Kramer’s aunt Lily Lange who was courted in her youth by Pessach, who wasn’t considered a good enough catch by the family.
From left: , Jenny Stead , dean Balie, Rushney Ferguson, André Terblanche with David and KKNK CEO Hugo Theart.
Weaving all these stories together, Kramer adds meat to the story by telling a tale of appropriation, something which has long been a problem on especially the African continent. The performers, the staging, the story, the words, used very sparsely but specifically, and the way Kramer tells the story, all contribute to a magical musical affair.
As usual, Kramer has excelled in the casting, with this quartet bursting with talent. And keeping it small, hopefully this one will travel far and wide. It’s a universal story told with heartiness and honesty by performers who are world class.
And then theatre:
Kanna for Best Interpretation, sponsored by Wicus Pretorius: Dawid Minnaar – Mirakel
Dawid Minnaar in a delicious performance with a brave Bettie Kemp who sailed through the play brilliantly as a last-minute replacement.
I have to start with Reza de Wet’s Mirakel ,directed by by her close friend Marthinus Basson. This has always been a stage match made in heaven.
But I hadn’t realised that this was a play I had never seen – and what a delight with a darkness captured in the script. De Wet can be quite melancholy with stories that tear you apart as she scratches around in the psyche of her people.
The cast of Mirakel with a fully cooked dinner including roast lamb … every performance!
But here she looks at a theatrical touring group with a much more gentle eye as she captures all the stereotypes in what can be a very melodramatic world. All the world’s a stage and nowhere is this more true than here.
And Basson’s first masterstroke was the casting. Dawid Minnaar’s performance sets the tone and gives free rein to the rest of the cast as they all swing into over-the-top storytelling that will have you in stitches.
But what lingers is the toughness that is here hidden by play, the struggle to practise something that brings pleasure. The way we regard and value our artists and allow them the space to breathe and to grow. All of which in the long run will bring huge rewards.
The drama of a traveling theatre company.The staging of Mirakel
I hope this can travel all over and play as many runs as can possibly be imagined. If ever you want to flee the problems of the present, this is where you want to go. It’s fun, it sketches a world we are all familiar with but perhaps not often part of and it allows the actors to go at it full tilt – and no one does it quite as deliciously and with so much relish (one can almost see him smacking his lips as he enters the stage) as Minnaar.
This is one I will cherish for a long time as the depth of what De Wet wanted us to contemplate lingers.
Kanna for Best Design and Technical Contribution, sponsored by Herotel: Craig Leo and Neil Coppen for the concept and design of Droomkraan Kronieke; For a second year running and deservedly so Herrie Prize for innovation or ground-breaking work, sponsored by Kunste Onbeperk: Karoo Kaarte
The enchanting cast of Droomkraan Kronieke stole hearts and more.
And as with Mirakel, similar things can be said of Karoo Kaarte’s Droomkraan Kronieke.
If anyone were wondering about the viability and sustainability of this dream project driven by Neil Coppen and Vaughn Sadie, they simply had to witness the leap this team has made in just a year following last year’s Op Hierdie Dag, which also received much praise, seven nominations and a win for artist Marinda Ntantiso.
This time they were aided by internationally renowned puppet master Craig Leo as well as actor Carlo Daniels, and the full team of actors worked much more in a cohesive unit, than the previous time.
It was a fun, emotionally fulfilling and rewarding experience as the actors displayed their performance skills, exuberance and energy and their growth in professional approach and execution.
This is a production that will play anywhere without any explanation needed of where they come from and who they are. That’s simply embellishment and heightens the admiration one feels for what they have achieved and the lives that are changed. Both for those performing and watching.
I wrote a huge piece on Karoo Kaarte last year (check for it in my blog if you want background), but it should also stand as a blueprint of how to make a festival (or any event) inclusive in an attempt to upend the status quo.
What Droomkraan Kronieke achieves more than anything else is to show and point to the potential right in front of our eyes and what happens when two artists (with the help of gracious donors and many other hands) can achieve with a community that has previously been held back and not given the opportunities.
Kanna for Best Director, sponsored by the ATKV Nicola Hanekom – Mirre en aalwyn; Kanna for Best Presentation – theatre, sponsored by the Het Jan Marais Nationale FondsMirre en aalwyn; Kanna for Best Literary Contribution, sponsored by NATi; Nicola Hanekom – Mirre en aalwyn (original script).
Leading the way, a heartbreaking performance by Amalia Uys.
Finally, Nicola Hanekom is back with yet another of her shattering site-specific pieces Mirre en Aalwyn, and as always she’s tuned into the zeitgeist, with abuse the one issue that has for many years grabbed the headlines. More than ever, it is critical in communities worldwide and in South Africa in particular.
There’s hardly a woman who reaches adulthood who cannot speak of an incident and often worse that can be ticked off as abuse. (If anyone heard Trump’s recent monstrous ramblings, that says it all). And instead of things improving and more people taking up the cause, it’s as if people turn their heads away and ignore those talking too loudly.
Elzabé Zietsman is doing the festival circuit with her devastating solo Femme is Fatale and now Hanekom has also stepped into the arena with a piece that doesn’t flinch as they go full on to investigate this scourge in especially women’s lives.
And in this instance where it besets families and the women have no protection, no one to turn to, no positive role models, it’s almost as if they turn on themselves. It’s the only thing of value they have to display and that’s where they go. And to add to the dilemma, they have found a voice in social media where everything is amplified, not always in especially the vicitms’s interest.
Oudtshoorn with its spectacular weather and environment offers the perfect canvas and Hanekom has refined this gloves-off type of approach when dealing with tough topics.
Her cast, always handpicked with great care, tell a story that audiences have to hear, and Hanekom introduces enough darkness and light to hold the attention and make the most explosive impact.
If you don’t leave this one shattered, think again.
And watch out, it might be difficult to play somewhere else because it is site-specific, but when there’s a will, there’s a way. And for this one, that’s how it should be.
Until next year, meanwhile there’s the Karoo Klassique from 4 to 7 August later this year. Also check the next story on the fabulous art.
De Beer Necessities 