Category: On My Mind

AARDKLOP PUNCHES ABOVE ITS WEIGHT

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Like most things in life there are good and bad to small packages, but Aardklop CEO Alexa Strachan has turned her shiny Potchefstroom gem into a star through clever planning, a balancing act of note and enough variety to have everyone laughing and crying – with good food all over the place to boot. DIANE DE BEER speaks her mind:

My husband knows I’m a festival junkie (while he is NOT) but it is a personal indulgence and one that clearly nourishes.

This year was no different. Taking only a handful of my best, it’s not a difficult case to make.

Running down the alphabet as the festival guide does, it’s the overwhelming laughter that blew me away. I’m not a comedy girl so I didn’t know who Alfred Adriaan was but I screamed with laughter from start to finish and he was obviously a festival favourite in the packed auditorium.

With the name of Magda Louw (Desiré Gardner), one would think that I would remember that this is one of my favourite characters, but again, because of the comedy aversion, it just never surfaces. And yet, from the minute she walks on stage in her latest production, Magda Louw en haar Erhard, how Louw can you go?, this time with her husband Erhard (a delightfully Sad Sack performance by Hannes van Wyk), they just bowl you over.

What makes Magda so delightful to embrace is that she doesn’t go on the clichéd South African rant of potholes and politics, she has much more exciting things to deal with like the man constantly shuffling behind her as she leads the way at a faster pace and with much more rhythm, but the two ageing souls give you hope for the future as you realise that life is just a bowl of bubbles if you attack it in the right way.

On the other side of the spectrum there’s the magnificent solo debut by the extraordinary Wilhelm van der Walt, who unassumingly takes the stage and then reaching into a far too familiar past, given new perspective.

There was a time when I could hardly stomach another troepie tirade because it was so dominating in the country that it constantly surfaced on stage. What I realized this time round, is that Van der Walt himself probably never participated in this deadly exercise for so many decades part of our lives and there were certainly many young audiences who needs this insight on our past.

And if it is done with such magnificence, the flashbacks are worth recalling even if the past could be wished away.

How can anyone not be thrilled to experience Antoinette Kellermann and Dawid Minnaar on stage and in this instance in Breyten Breytenbach’s last play, Verwelkingslied, before he died. Although he dedicated the piece to Antoinette Kellermann and Marthinus Basson, she performed with her long-time stage partner Minnaar with Mari Borstlap as director on a set which was reminiscent of some of their earlier work together.

Minnaar is an eerily similar version of the poet in voice and image and immediately you can lose yourself in the meanderings of this philosophical and always poetic (almost) memoir. As the two actors take turns in monologue yet sharing Breytenbach’s feelings on death, one drifts away in the words so magnetic and the voice so penetrating, almost in dreamlike state, the actors and the audience.

The simplicity of the presentation is apt as it holds the depth and strength of the text so delicately. This is where we need the words to wash over us as an audience in almost immersive fashion.

I know that Amanda Strydom first mesmerized me with The Incredible Journey of Tinkerbell van Tonder and was eager to experience the performance all these decades later. Not that I can remember the detail, but with age of both text and performer, it’s as if everything has just found a warmer and gentler place to settle and lay her head down.

Finding your place in the world is a never-ending search and when you are fighting for freedom it is almost impossible – yet not when you’re Nelia Petersen who was handed the struggle together with mother’s milk.

It’s rigorous and robust with Strydom tackling the text and music with equal energy and exuberance. And all these years later, if anything, it is even more brittle and brilliant than before. I could watch this performance any day.

Belofte van Vere was our first production and yet another Breytenbach tribute but, once I witnessed the full cast on stage, they had my full attention. With the musically adventurous Laurinda Hofmeyr on piano, a rare singing appearance from the jazz-infused Ilse Klink, the genius muso Leon Gropp (guitar and voice), the soulful David Klassen (drums), a rhythmic Concord Nkabinde (bass) with the velvet voices of Rolanda Marais and Eben Genis, I knew I would be transformed. And I was.

Performers Eben Genis and Rolanda Marais

This exciting, gifted collection of artists would know how to do Breyten Breytenbach, without frills and fancy tricks, just delivering on their accomplishments and Breyten’s poetry and words. Anything else to my mind would have been unwarranted.

It’s my kind of show with my kind of people and poems. I needed nothing more. For me this was a Breytenbach celebration and I’m certain he would have been honoured.

Combining two dance companies, Cape Town’s magnificent Figure of 8 Dance Theatre who also performed their haunting tribute (Die Een Wat Bly) to the relationship between mothers and sons, the more expansive Wings of Light: Dance of an Angel returned dance to Aardklop in spectacular fashion. The music composed by Mauritz Lotz set the tone for an exquisite performance which showcased both classical and contemporary dance, the perfect rendition for an audience who might not often have the chance to see this kind of performance. It was a rare feat to stage this production and hopefully paved the way for similar ventures in the future.

Festivals have to walk a tightrope of not playing it too safe yet not antagonising their core audiences. With the large auditorium thé venue for one of our best comedians as well as two of the most exciting dance companies in the country, they managed just that.

There was also time to slip into the art venues, always something to cherish, and this time it was the festival Artist Jaco van Schalkwyk as well as a challenging group exhibition Vice Versa curated by artist Gwynneth Miller, all of which got the mind racing on a variety of contemporary issues. The renovated campus art museum also featured an exciting range of Nataniël pictures captured by his longest serving photographer Clinton Lubbhe

As an extra fillip, there was the celebratory concert of Nataniël and Charl du Plessis’s 25-year collaboration on stage. And as I had witnessed their initial first performances together, this was quite emotional.

To watch two stratospheric artists develop, dissect and model their artistry as they grow and stretch in different ways is unexpected and artistically adventurous.

There’s Du Plessis’s breathtaking exuberance and excellence on piano, the way he shifts between genres and his approach to his longtime stage companion. Nataniël again exhibits his stagecraft, flips easily from text to music, his stories hilariously funny with a hint of melancholy, or on the musical side, surprising everyone with his superb classical training which he hardly ever shares. They are an unbeatable combination with so many years of performance between them.

Aardklop features youth theatre with their Pronk Podium product, which this year invited its most successful writer/director/producer to present his latest work Doolhof together with the NWU Kampustoneel winner Diereryk  directed and written by Pierre-André Viviers, cleverly based on Animal Far.

Every year I am thrilled and struck by the quality of the productions and everyone’s artistry involved. For future artists, this is unequalled training ground and for audiences the ideal opportunity to see how young artists tell their stories and what to expect in the future.

At future festivals, remember to watch out for this special section.

I could go on and on, I even made a turn at the market, something I never do, but I wanted to surprise my favourites at home with some specialty snacks.

As always it was a festival with feisty and fabulous fare on every level.

And the winners for the annual Aardklop festival awards are:

  • Best Actress: Elzabé Zietsman for Routrip
  • Best Actor: Wilhelm van der Walt for Seun
  • Best Director: Nico Scheepers for Seun
  • Best Overall Production: Seun
  • Award for most innovative work: The Scullery Quintet: Stir-fried Sonatas
  • Visual Art: Best Exhibition: Corpus Naturae, Jaco van Schalkwyk
  • Best Music-driven Production: Amanda Strydom: The incredible journey of Tinkerbell van Tonder
  • Best Classical Music performance: Road Trip Rhythms
  • Best Musical-driven performance: The Scullery Quintet
  • Hartsvriende Beste Produksie: Seun
  • Best new Afrikaans Script: Nataniël for NATANIËL + CHARL = 25
  • Best Production: Drama: Seun
  • Knockout Award: Alfred Adriaan: Positive Strokes
  • Extra Mile: Riaan Rademan (Technical project manager for Blond Productions)

THE EXUBERENTLY ENERGETIC ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER MORE ROMP THAN REVOLUTIONARY TALE

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DIANE DE BEER reviews Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest movie screened at Ster-Kinekor theatres around the country:

Teyana Taylor as Perrfidia, the eternal revolutionary

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

CAST: Leo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro

Living in these unsettling times when nobody knows what they will wake up to every morning in so many parts of the world, it is fascinating to see how artists are going to interpret something so personal and yet so beyond anything anyone could have imagined.

If you take previous movies like Boogie Nights, Magnolia and There will Be Blood, with their intent and in their diversity, Anderson’s decision to tackle the life he currently finds himself in, is not surprising. Neither is his approach.

Taking Thomas Pynchon’s ‘80s novel Vineyard (according to production notes) as his starting point, he writes a script so daringly in-your-face yet anchored by a father/daughter love story and electrifies this helter-skelter caper-like tale with a fantastic cast and a pace that leaves you breathless from the start to finish.

Making his attentions clear from the start, two of the strangest revolutionaries explode onto the screen as they shoot their way through an immigration centre to free the victims while simultaneousloy, disabling their viciously fierce, military captors.

With raucous music and an exuberantly energetic, romantically charged couple participating in the escape, it plays like a merry romp rather than a deathly revolution, quite reminiscent of the hippies in the ‘60s.

Chase Infiniti as the daughter of revolutionary active parents faces Regina Hall

And that sets of a chain of events which races through causes and time shifting in giant-sized leaps with the young revolutionaries suddenly parents even though their activities don’t diminish and again as mother is torn apart from father and baby, the child turns into an accomplished scholar raised by her now drug and alcohol drenched dad who spends all his time doting on his darling daughter.

That’s at the heart of the frenetic contemporary tale but into its violent centre strides Colonel Steven J Lockjaw inhabited by a transformed Sean Penn (with the best contemporary remake of a mullet ever as seen above) who immerses himself in his right-wing tin soldier on a crusade to turn his country into a white universe ruled by power-demented ageing white men.

As these stories go, his hormones are unstoppable at the sight of Perfidia and even though he is a monstrous racist, he cannot resist her and starts to stalk her.

She however is committed to the resistance which is how he lands on the trail of Bob (DiCaprio, pictured above) and his now 16-year-old daughter Willa while catching a whiff of his addictive sexual attraction every once in a while.

The rest of the film is as promised one battle after another as father and daughter spend their lives evading their deadly predator while leading seemingly normal lives even though they have escape tunnels and technical devices which speak only to each other.

The film is packed from top to bottom and one side to another. It stretches every way and catapults back and forth to get a hold of the story and everything Anderson embroiders and stictches into his contemporary political tale.

Yet none of this is obvious as you are taken on a madcap adventure with some of the best action scenes and acting you will ever see. DiCaprio’s Bob reminds one of his character in The Wolf of Wall Street, only it’s a few decades on, he acknowledges his brain is fried from decades of abuse and what is left, is a laid-back dad who is happy as long as he is high and his daughter is happy.

Keeping him calm is Benicio del Toro’s sensei (pictured above), who is as cool as he is calm and the one who watches over his charges as if they are precious artefacts. He has manufactured a secret city within a city where he and his followers can escape when the crazy people start descending and some of the best chase scenes – on foot and in cars – will take you on a spree you have never encountered in film. James Bond can only dream of these kind of escapes.

But even as you run along and together as fast as you can (almost with a hop, skip and a jump) with the ragtag collection of what the rulers of their world see as life’s misfits, the politics are deadly serious and nothing to laugh at.

Anderson knows how to get his message across. No use preaching. We all know what is happening around us, the signs are everywhere even if we’re too busy to notice. Catch them with classic comedy and craftmanship and then hit hard with the story you’re really intent on sharing.

And that’s exactly what he does. You might just die laughing.

WITH A ROBUST PRODUCTION TEAM AND VIBRANT CAST “JOSEPH” IS A RADIANT REVIVAL

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BY DIANE DE BEER

JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TERCHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT BY TIM RICE AND LLOYD WEBBER

DIRECTOR: Anton Luitingh and Duane Alexander

CHOREOGRAPHER: Duane Alexander and Jared Schaedler

MUSICAL SUPERVISOR: Charl-Johan Lingenfelder

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Amy Campbell

SET, COSTUMES AND PROP DESIGN: Niall Griffin

LIGHTING DESIGN: Oliver Hauser

SOUND DESIGN: David Classen

PRODUCERS: Pieter Toerien and Lamta

CAST: Lelo Ramasimong (narrator), Dylan Janse van Rensburg (Joseph), Chris Jaftha (Jacob/Potiphar/Pharaoh)

DATES: Until the end of September

This iconic musical had its first performances 50 years ago and if we take the current revivals, it’s still going strong. And with reason.

It’s always worth watching what Luitingh, Alexander, Lingenfelder, Griffin and Hauser are doing. They know how to breathe new life into what might have become a tired musical without losing its soul.

It’s a young and exciting cast who are being given wonderful opportunities to shine but they have also been gifted the tools to make it work.

From start to finish, the clarity of what they wanted to present and achieve was clear and that’s a joy to behold.

From the clever and uncluttered design which works in these smaller theatres to the choreography which flows and adds to the energy, everything is thought through and then executed to perfection. There’s just no leeway for things to go wrong.

Even when it comes to the look, it’s the way they have selected the costumes. Many were bought rather than freshly designed and, in this instance, a good choice not opting for the traditional dungerees the brothers more typically used to wear.

The only one that had me flummoxed was the narrator. Ramasimong’s blue jeans and shirt with the oddest jersey/jacket was an eyesore rather than using some imagination. Perhaps just a simple flowing robe would have had more impact. She plays a major role, is probably the one who has the most stage time and yet, she sticks out for the wrong reasons visually.

Fortunately she’s a marvelous performer and soars in her role as narrator. She has an unusual voice and a lovely stage presence. She knows this is where she belongs.

And so do the rest of the cast. One has to start with Janse van Rensburg’s Joseph, after all he is in the title role. It’s quite a responsibility on young shoulders in such an intimate large theatre. There’s nowhere to hide and if you don’t bring the goods as well as the charm, you’re in trouble. Janse Van Rensburg has already proved himself in challenging shows like Spring Awakening and he does it again here. He has a strong voice and a vulnerability that works in this part.

And someone who played his part in stealing some of the limelight is Jaftha, who had fun with his trio of roles as Jacob, Potiphar and in particular Pharaoh, the rocker who has a large moment in the musical which has rocketed other local actors (think Alvin Collison) to fame.

It’s a tricky role, but Jaftha has charisma and sass and was more than willing and able to step into any large shoes.

But as much as there are solo moments, it is a musical that involves the full cast because of the nature of the story – a bunch of brothers, for example – and then you have to balance that with the other roles.

If you’ve lived with a musical as long as I have with this one, it’s not easy to catch my attention. But I was stunned. I have seen a few musicals by this production team and I know they usually deliver. From the casting to the costume (bar one!) to the ensemble performances, the singing, the cast in full, it had a joyous feel about it in what can only be described as difficult times.

As well as the music, which was spirited into the new millenium as only Lingenfelder can do. “It was my third production of Joseph and I really didn’t want to do it,” he says. But when he was given the chance to pull the emphasis back to the story and to make sure everything worked for this time, he stepped on board. And it shows, with a score that’s as familiar as it is musically edgy. It’s something he achieves with astonishing regularity.

With the right people, that’s what entertainment can do in times of trouble. It offers respite and has you singing along with a bunch of brothers who hatch a plan to get rid of their father’s favourite son. An unlikely story but many decades ago a clever collaborating team started a much-envied partnership with this one as their first worldwide success.

And if you get it right, it still works. As it does in this latest version.

THERE’S NO WAY OF STOPPING THE CREATIVE NATANIËL, AN ARTIST CONSTANTLY ON THE MOVE

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Nataniël is on the go – again – and it was time for DIANE DE BEER to pop in and find out more about upcoming shows, events and anything else happening in this prolific artist’s life:

What is keeping him up at night and awake at the crack of dawn is the work on his latest podcast series, which has become yet another of his performance features since his first series a while back. Kwessie van die Dag, his brand-new video column, starts on August 4 on Netwerk24.

As with anything he does, Nataniël approaches these latest podcasts with everything he’s got. “It’s as much work as a TV series,” he notes. And for this perfectionist, it is. He simply cannot do things haphazardly, with quality a constant taskmaster.

He is aware that everybody has turned to podcasts and his will be the best. This isn’t boasting because he is genius when it comes to storytelling. There’s no competing with this conversationalist.

It is all about the words which he has to learn by heart – 3 000 a week! They are his words, he has written each one, but then he has to get them tripping off the tongue. While it comes easily, he believes in scripts and knows exactly what he has to do and how he wants it to sound. So while there are many copycats, few can master him at his craft.

I often see pieces written by “Nataniël”, but it’s easy to spot when someone tries to capture his style because it is so unique. And this is where his podcast will pass with flying colours. “I don’t like waffling,” he says as he launches an attack on what he has labelled “electronic pollution”!

“There’s enough rubbish around.” He has an opinion which his followers will be familiar with, but he also loves facts when he is dealing in a specific subject. One of the many hurdles is the battle of language. He will be speaking in Afrikaans and to capture a language in this way is fraught with many pitfalls especially the way we mix our languages in our daily conversations.

It is clear that this is his latest challenge but also part of the excitement that charges his existence.

He is always busy creating and many of the things might seem as though they have a familiar pattern which, if you study them, they don’t. Into that mix, he is also constantly injecting new accomplishments which keep him on his toes.

“Everyone invites me to be a guest on their podcasts.” But for him there is a specific reason to engage with people in this fashion. “I want to address issues and for me it is about inspiration.”

BOEK • BYBEL • BIOSKOOP is the title of the show he is doing with organist Zorada Termmingh, a friend from varsity, together with his accompanist, pianist Charl du Plessis. Knowing something about his creative mind, he will be pulling all their respective talents together in a spectacular bouquet.

We’re in August and it is all about women. Composers, writers, singers, designers, as well as timeless characters from movies, classic literature, Biblical tales, art and theatre are their inspiration in this colourful show full of stories and songs. Zorada and Nataniël have performed on stage many times, starting during their student years. Charl has been his accompanist (apart from establishing his own career as a solo artist and performing with the Charl du Plessis Trio) for the past 25 years. And this is not the first outing for this trio of consummate performers.

It is a one-off in the capital city on August 13 at 7pm and the Ned Geref Universiteitsoord Kerk. The show is 90 minutes (more or less) long.

In September he returns to one of his most ambitious projects, Mass for the Good Princes (recently released on CD), which will be performed in the Cape for the first time thanks to the goodwill of the Atterbury Trust.

It’s a double whammy for Nataniël –  one of both joy and hysteria. This was one of those accomplishments he had dreamt of for a very long time. Writing it was an almost impossible feat with his kind of schedule, and with each performance he has to once again memorise the Latin text, which is a killer.

This will be the 3rd time that he attempts this daunting exercise and while it stretches even his seemingly limitless determination, he can’t resist it. It is based on the classical structure of a Latin church mass with a sacred composition by Nataniël in six parts which includes a prayer for goodness, new leadership and the hope of a new generation. It will be sung in English and Latin with descriptions and translations in Afrikaans.

It will be presented at the Ned Geref Welgemoed Church on Saturday September 20 at 5pm. He will be joined by the Charl du Plessis Trio (Charl with Werner Spies and Peter Auret) as well as organist Ockie Vermeulen, guitarist Luke van der Merwe and the Akustika Chamber Choir led by Christo Burger.

In March this year, Nataniël and Charl celebrated 25 years on stage together and they seal this with a Gala Concert at Aardklop – on October 7 (7pm) and October 8 (10 am) in the University of Potchefstroom Auditorium.

This won’t be an ordinary concert. These two artists haven’t only shared 25 years on stage and many kilometres of travel through the South African countryside for one-off shows, but this was also the start of Charl’s stage career, which has been quite stunning to witness from the start – one he has since established both nationally and internationally – a feat for someone who started out as a classical pianist (one of the most difficult careers to pursue) and accompanist. Today he has a doctorate and is celebrated as both a classical and jazz artist. I can’t wait to see these two face off on stage on equal footing. For those fortunate enough to see one of these concerts, I predict something unique.

Nataniël is already making promises that this won’t be a rundown of what they have already accomplished. They will be celebrating today and tomorrow. “Who are we now and how do we see the future” will be their aim.

“Why would we return to the past? That’s done and we have all been there.” And in typical Nataniël fashion he predicts: “I want to hear an intake of breath when I walk on stage!”

As he so astutely confirms, it will be 70 years of experience when the two of them mark their stage partnership.

While talking partnerships and friendships, one of his closest friends, actress/comedian Marion Holm, will be interviewing Nataniël on his latest book of short stories titled Sweetie. Book discussions aren’t his favourite, but if he has to do it, Marion would be his choice. “She can physically shut me up just by barking.” You’ll have to be there to understand exactly what that means. They go way back and to experience these two like-minded actors sparring verbally, you don’t want to miss that. They’re a scream individually, together it’s an exuberance.

Your ticket will be a copy of Sweetie which can either be bought before the time or at the Exclusive Pop-Up in the book tent. The first 200 people with a book in hand will be allowed into the space, which will be closed off for this event. You won’t be able to listen in on the sidelines. The Sweetie discussion is going to be that exclusive and is happening on October 8 at 3pm at Aardklop.

And it’s not over yet by a long stretch. A photographer who for more than two decades documented Nataniël’s career, Clinton Lubbe, who immigrated a few years back, is back in town for an exhibition of life-size Nataniël pictures titled Parade, another first for Aardklop. Their collaboration has also been running for more than two decades and Nataniël describes Clinton’s camera as a paintbrush, because of the way he creates pictures. They’re not simply pictures, they’re artworks, he notes. “I’m going to be the Naomi Campbell of Aardklop,” he says with a smile and a wink.

Finally, but just for the moment, there’s his latest production, Catch Me, Love, which will be staged at Artscape from November 13 to 16. He is already busy writing, which is unheard of. He usually works on his scripts much closer to his performance than a few months, but looking at his schedule, he knew he had to get ahead.

This one is going to be visually and structurally different to his former shows, he says. And although it is still early days, I know he has already dreamt and planned it in detail. It will only feature in Gauteng in the New Year because in-between there’s the promise of a French countryside holiday, his annual escape (when he can manage) to one of his favourite places, which is what motivates him these days.

Watch this space for fresh announcements or changes. They will be coming …

SAVIOUR OF DEMOCRACY OR DESTINED TO DISAPPOINT IN A COUNTRY RAVAGED BY WAR?

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DIANE DE BEER

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Gontse Ntshegang as Grace, Craig Jackson as the psychiatrist and Farai Chigudu as the bodyguard with Themba Ndaba as Robert Mugabe.

PICTURES: Ngoma KaMphahlele

BREAKFAST WITH MUGABE by FRASER GRACE

DIRECTOR: Calvin Ratladi

PLAYWRIGHT: Fraser Grace

SET DESIGNER: Wilhelm Disbergen

COSTUME DESIGNER: Sheli Masondo

LIGHTING DESIGNER: Denis Hutchinson

CULTURAL DRAMATURGE: Professor Samuel Ravengai

MUSIC: Matthew Macfarlane

ACCENT COACH: Louise-Saint Claire

 CAST: Themba Ndaba as Mugabe, Gontse Ntshegang as Grace, Craig Jackson as Andrew Peric and Farai Chigudu as Gabriel

VENUE: Mannie Manim at the Market Theatre

DATES: until August 10

If you are intrigued by the title, this is a play you will want to see. With the name Robert Mugabe having special meaning in South Africa, neighbouring country to Zimbabwe, it was a packed buzzy audience in attendance, always a joy to behold in an industry that’s constantly in battle.

If you google the number of Zimbabweans living in South Africa, they are described as the largest group of foreign migrants in the country. “Some estimates suggest the number could be as high as 3 to 5 million.”  And it goes on to say that the influx is primarily due to economic hardship and instability in Zimbabwe.

South Africans will all have some opinion of what occurred in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is still an enigma to many because he started as a saviour in the new democracy in 1980 in a country which was ravaged by civil war. The education system alone can attest to that.

Yet, because of the ambiguities, political perspectives and where you come from will come into play when watching this fierce production. If you are expecting answers to the many questions you might have, what you get is a view of the complications of a system which so clearly exposes the cliché, “you cannot please all of the people all of the time”.

What you have is a deeply troubled man haunted by his actions as a political leader of a country that lay in ruins yet full of hope for a new dawn. The action is heightened from the start as Grace Mugabe (his second wife) has summoned a white psychologist to see her husband. What unfolds all happens in hushed tones, with people looking over their shoulders waiting for some kind of menace.

A man who was born to intimidate, Mugabe’s bodyguard, is hovering and watching in constant attendance. A jittery wife at first seems worried about her distressed husband, yet as she almost pounces on her guest, it is clear that she is much more concerned with her own wellbeing as Shopper of the Nation (which is clearly and most deliciously displayed in her glitzy attire) and wants to make sure her own position isn’t threatened. She is after all a secretary, who switched to sycophantic wife.

What happens next is like a thriller unspooling in almost Shakespearean fashion. Present are Robert Mugabe, his wife Grace, an English psychiatrist and the ever present bodyguard. The tone is set by an obviously agitated and deeply paranoid leader who, even though haunted by the past, is intent on dissembling reality.

The cast is astounding, from Ndaba’s resolved Mugabe and Jackson’s bewildered yet embattled psychiatrist to the staunch bodyguard portrayed by Chigudu and the glorious Ntshegang, who masterfully displays Grace’s Machiavellian traits as she plays everyone differently.

The writing is a masterpiece. First written at the turn of the century, its relevance seems heightened in today’s world where unfettered power is displayed and celebrated with such candour and even pride. But it’s the way playwright Fraser Grace tackles all the issues, explores the ruthlessness of the regime and manages to stand aside from the writing that makes this hair-raising yet compulsive viewing.

Perhaps it takes someone from such a distance, almost unattached, to tackle such momentous events with such a clearcut vision.  He writes vividly in the Guardian about his own experiences, and it is worth reading for further clarity. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/jul/23/play-breakfast-with-mugabe-market-theatre-johannesburg-fraser-grace.

Well done to Greg Homann and The Market for staging this work and for the passion of director Calvin Ratladi, Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre who held onto his dream of directing this play one day and grabbed the opportunity when he had the chance.

He knew exactly how and with whom it should be told.

FRIEDA VAN DEN HEEVER IS A BRILLIANT ARTIST WITH A MISSION WHO KNOWS HOW TO STAGE A MESMERISING SHOW

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Frieda van den Heever is an artist who understands how to communicate and how best to express herself and show her world on stage. DIANE DE BEER shares some of the artistry of this amazing woman who will be performing in Pretoria for the first time this week

“What we love about music is not that it sounds good. What we love about music is that it sounds inevitable. It’s playing the thing that we all know is unfolding. Whether we want to accept it or not …”

Jon Batiste (American Symphony)

This is the quote artist Frieda van den Heever sent me when we started a conversation on email.

I became aware of her as a producer. She was mostly involved with poetry-driven productions, but what I noticed was the sensibility of what is a very tough stage production.

How do you get people to attend poetry productions at a festival where there is so much on the go? But she did and she knew how.

She describes herself as a novice who preaches, because she studied drama not theology. She explains that in Springbok, where she grew up, they called it people’s church when a normal person preached because the preacher couldn’t be there.

“I have been doing it for almost 14 years, and no one has ever asked for my credentials,” she says. Having encountered her on stage, I understand why.

She is part of InVia congregation in Cape Town and describes this community as a group of people who love music and people. Her father was a minister and while she spent most of her free hours as a child in his study rather than on her own, she never thought that she would either enter the church or become a musician like her mother. “I had spent enough time in churches with music in my ears for a lifetime,” was what she thought.

Still, when she read something impactful she always caught herself speaking rather than just reading that passage. She simply couldn’t escape and then there was a time when she didn’t want to any longer. It has always been a juggling game, because it wasn’t something she could practise fulltime. But she missed theatre.

She believes in the power of stories, fables, poetry and metaphors. “Both theology and theatre navigate a place beyond knowledge, something like mysticism, and tell stories that often hold warm truths rather than cold facts,” she explains.

The part of her work that she favours most is what she describes as “accompanying rituals”, including marriages, funerals, christenings and the like. She regards it as her calling to add to the honouring of these events. It’s not that she participates only in religious ceremonies; she is often involved when people aren’t particularly interested in a church but still have a need for some kind of ritual which they share with their loved ones.

She also presents talks and retreats for congregations or groups of people who approach her. These are creative workshops specifically for women, but she stresses, “it has nothing to do with pancakes, crochet and tea parties.”

She knows these certainly have a place, but for her it is about togetherness, breathing, chanting, laughing and crying.

That’s just the beginning of all her activities. She is also involved in yoga and the transformation that ensues and has a deep fascination with people and how they struggle and survive. And while she would have loved to study psychology, a lack of time made her opt for an intensive 14-month course in integral coaching which will be incorporated in her other work.

And still, she keeps going. Once a week, she travels to Stellenbosch, her alma mater, and teaches cabaret facilitating the practical execution and texts of the honours students in the US Drama Department . As a student of the legendary Marthinus Basson, she is delighted that she can pass on her experience to a younger generation.

There’s also her radio work which started on small scale, but her talents were quickly recognized. And she still benefits from her innovative moves during Covid which resulted in her producing programmes in the basement of her home.

That led to her producing most of her radio and television work in her home. It means that she doesn’t have to spend too much time away from her children and allows her to do much of that work early in the morning. “It all happens before the children and the cars have to wake,” she says.

I’m breathless and haven’t yet come to her performance, which is really what I want to promote.

On Wednesday at 7pm, Frieda will be performing at the Fairtree Atterbury Theatre in Lynnwood, Pretoria for the first time in a magnificent production, Spoorsny (tracking) .

“I really went into grief. I sensed that I had to go in if I wanted to come out. I don’t mean that I’m perfect now, but I’ve been through the perfect storm and that moulds one to find more light because I was mining the darkness. I can sense, I almost want to say I can smell light and when I sense it I look for it everywhere. The material for my debut album came from a show I did on what would have been the night of Leon’s (Kruger) 50th birthday. (He had died very suddenly in 2021) I saw the Woordfees was during that time and I didn’t know on which date I was going to perform and then when they sent me the date, I went for it to really celebrate him with this work and this script. I could have gone to sit somewhere in the quiet and the dark which isn’t wrong, I have done it. But for that night I wanted to share what was left of me, so that it could multiply and I’m grateful for that.”

Frieda van den Heever – Spoorsny: Frieda van den Heever – Spoorsny – Seatme

Her previous productions as director, Die Poet – Wie’s Hy?, Die Oerkluts Kwyt and Met Woorde Soos Kerse all shared a particular sensibility that made me aware of a rare director at work. She knows she didn’t have the technical experience, but her affinity with poetry and performance outweighed anything else. I didn’t notice any imperfections with any of those mind-blowing shows.

She works with love, a fine-tuned ear and excellent evalution. Also, part of the package was a childlike “unknowing”, an unwavering belief in the collective intelligence and the process, endless curiosity as well as an excellent production team and artists. Her motto was to always be present in the process. Whatever the requirements, it worked.

If you’re crying halt, there’s more. For 10 years she has been involved in a process with farm workers who boast magnificent voices. Each year she selects 10 of the best and offers them the opportunity to learn and to show off their talent. “I try to bring each individual something, give some of my experience, but I can’t teach them anything about singing. I have worked with voices that compare with the best in the world and it is a burning passion to create more platforms to showcase these voices.”

Her own musical talent, writing and composing songs and performing, has never been the only thing she wants to rely on to make a living. She wanted to be a free spirit when going on stage.

She is much more of a homebody than someone who wants to be out there but she also has a need to be challenged by the alchemy of a live performance. She obviously has a blueprint when she goes on stage, but she also reads the room and has the talent to shape her performance in different ways.

If she had a choice, she would write songs, play music, dance and jam with other voices and instruments all day long. “That feels like the best and most unvarnished version of myself,” she concedes.

To my mind, that is exactly who we watch and listen to during a performance of Spoorsny.

But let me give wordsmith Frieda van den Heever the last word: “The sudden death of my husband in 2021 and the impact of mortality and loss give perspective to everything I do and am. I am much more than a widow and single mom, but it gives context to my decisions and relationships, the spaces I find myself in and how I engage with people. The raw material which emerged in my debut album Skoonveld and formed the platform for the stage show Spoorsny as well as the anthology (published by NB) ‘n Asem Lank says everything about my search for meaning and light.”

ANTJIE KROG, AN AUTHOR WHO SPEAKS HER MIND

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When you have one writer in the family, I would imagine you feel blessed. Two? Perhaps not so much but someone who makes a meal of this is ANTJIE KROG who in her latest memoir writes about the relationship between her and her mother, the author Dot Serfontein. DIANE DE BEER started out reading the English version, followed that with the one in Krog’s home language and then listened to her talk about the book:

It’s a personal thing, I know, but if I can read a writer in her home language, I do. And again I was proved right with Antjie Krog’s latest offerings, Blood’s Inner Rhyme or the Afrikaans version Binnerym van die Bloed, which she describes as an autobiographical novel.

Because I write in English, I thought it might be easier to read that version, but after hearing her speak, I knew I had to get my hands on the Afrikaans book. It’s the way she Krog uses the Afrikaans language which enriches the reading.

If I didn’t have the option, I would have given the English a similar review, it’s simply that the Afrikaans introduces a different heartbeat.

Even in the best pairings, mothers and daughters have complicated relationships. When you are competing with one another even if that’s not the intention, which I’m sure it wasn’t, it’s going to be tough. Add to that two headstrong women who arguably stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum, expect fireworks – and that’s what you get.

Women all have mothers, that’s obvious, and some have their own daughters. All of us know the intricacies of that relationship – and that is when it isn’t public. Writing for an English newspaper, I wasn’t part of the Afrikaans writers’ circles and even I, not your natural gossip girl, heard rumours. And that’s where I admire Krog for doing this extraordinary book.

Antjie Krog, author extraordinaire.

Both of these women are celebrated writers who lived their lives in the spotlight. To then delve even more publicly into that life must have been an excruciating decision. And then to travel the country as one does to promote the book – what extraordinary courage. It reminds me that artists sometimes don’t have a choice, it has to come out. And usually it is the reader who benefits.

Thanks goodness Krog decided to write about this often fraught, sometimes fragile but also intense relationship. I can only guess that while sometimes devastating it must also have been therapeutic and the way to mourn and celebrate what she once had. Death has a way of shining a new light on something that was just too overwhelming to observe as it was happening.

For those of us ageing ourselves who have also shared a close relationship with a mother in her last years, it is especially meaningful. My eldest sister booked my parents into a retirement home which was on the way home from my work and I could pop in as often as possible without any inconvenience. I coped with the sometimes-daily trauma of witnessing this ageing process by communicating with a third sister who could only get the news via whatsapp or email. It was a lifesaver.

I could appreciate the daily diary of Krog’s mother’s most basic needs. That is in fact what happens when people age as we are forced to focus on the brutal minutiae of their lives. For example:

Night report:

20.00 Medication. Pt (patient) didn’t want to drink half a sleeping pill. Wanted a whole one

22.45 PT said her toes hurt. Applied Turlington + gave another half sleeping pill

00.30 Pt wanted another half sleeping pill. She was uncomfortable. She wanted to get up, I had to hold her by the sides. Pt wanted to make food. Pt was angry that the freezer had no meat.

These diaries were kept day and night – every day and night. It constantly reminds one of the process that is unfolding. As Krog tells it, focussing on her mother’s “excrement which happens daily is to own that which is being rejected, that which is such a part of her waning existence, her body’s extremities.” Krog who tells things exactly how they are explains: “There’s actually a very profound thing about shit,” she says as she captures the importance of change as life starts running out.

In full flow.

Yet there’s so much more happening around the family. It is an especially fraught time for farmers and for Dot Serfontein the family farm represents who she is. It was her inheritance. For Krog, even though she has similar bonds to the farm, she also knows and is burdened by the privilege it represents – something in this country that was often at the cost of someone else.

It is fascinating to read and witness the lives of different generations, especially in that time when everyone in the country knew things were going to change dramatically. She acknowledges that the relationship between mother and daughter is complex. In this family and between this mother and daughter perhaps even more than most.

While Krog is at pains to write about this sometimes combative relationship, it is also a celebration of Dot Serfontein, who she was and what she achieved with her writing. This is where and how Krog first discovered her words and both she and her readers have benefited.

There are so many stories captured in what can be described as a memoir. Having lived through the ageing process of my parents, that is what drew me to the writing. One learns so much about your own mortality, growing old gracefully and celebrating life whatever your age.

And thus her mother concludes only a couple of chapters into the book: “I keep all your letters,”  she writes to her daughter. “One day you can compile us in a plundered book like Audrey Blignault’s daughter. Initially I wondered whether the sudden revival of my oevre was thanks to you, but when I saw so many Dot Serfonteinisims in your work and some of our private family phantom(b)s, I thought we constitute each other.”

Having lived in each other’s shadow most of their lives, it couldn’t be any other way. That is what this astonishing writer captures so magnificently. Yes it is about a mother and daughter, but there is so much more. It’s insightful, entertaining, both sad and extremely funny, and even historical in many instances. But what captured my heart was Krog’s writing. She has a way with words that is unequaled.

FIRST-TIME AUTHOR JULIETTE MNQETA CONFESSES THAT SHE LOVES WRITING AND TELLING STORIES

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Juliette Mnqeta has dreamt about her debut novel and now that it is finally here, she’s hoping that this, a crime novel, will be the first of many more adventures. If The Dead Could Talk (published by Kwela)is impressive and DIANE DE BEER was keen to meet the writer who seems so comfortable in her author skin:

Playing the sleuth: first-time author Juliette Mnqeta (Picture: Sean Eyes)

“A WHITE PIECE OF PAPER IS A SAFE SPACE.”

Anyone who can say those  words must be confident because I haven’t heard many writers confess that.

First-time author Juliette Mnqeta also writes in her preface: ‘‘I believe I can … write.’’

When you start asking her questions, she’s quick to confide that she’s shy and doesn’t have too much self-belief.

Not too far into the story, I was thinking of Deon Meyer, so impressed was I by the storytelling. “Well, I am the youngest of nine children. I guess that’s why I have so much to say,” is her response. “I have always loved telling a story, which I think I got from my mother. She was a very emotive woman and could always retell events with a little bit of  her own  spice.’’

Juliette spent most of her childhood and teenage years in Wynberg and began writing once in her teens. She started with short stories and even tried her hand at writing poetry, but it never occurred to her to study anything that would help her with writing.  “I just love to write.”

She had no particular interest in crime novels and it only started when she realised most of the girls in her class would go for romance, so she opted for crime. “The first crime novel she ever read was in high school, a book by Ruth Rendell and that was for a school project.

Her interest was piqued when watching a few Agatha Christe adaptations on television. “I started reading her novels and haven’t stopped since,” she explains. “What draws me in is the puzzle of solving the crime.

“There’s a sense of justice and lightbulb moment when everything comes together, I enjoy that.”

And that’s exactly what she gives us with this her first venture into this world, resulting in her debut novel.

She’s still a young writer but her processes reflect her love of writing. “With my Facebook stories, I simply open the page and start typing to see where it leads,” she says.

It all falls in the realm of practice, practice, and more practice, long believed to be thé thing to do.

With If the Dead could Talk, she started with the full reveal. “I remember starting with the planning of the ending.”

She had her villain(s) first, their motives outlined and only then did she start working on her protagonists. She knew if she had her culprits, she could disguise that person amongst a few red herrings and suspects. “I then worked backwards, which was fun because I slowly discovered my protagonists’ personalities and fell in love with them.”

At the tender age of 19, she was told by her then employer that to be a writer, she would have to be exceptional, and he didn’t think she quite fit that criterion. But she always knew he said that without having read her work. When her mother died in 2018, she decided to start writing this current novel.

“My mother had always bragged to her friends that I could write, even though she had also never read my work. But when she was suddenly gone, I opened my laptop, and started mapping out my story.

“I already had my villain. I had my crime, and I had the reaction in mind that I wanted the audience to have when they figured out who this villain was.”

While writing had always come easily, this was different, even humbling, she says. She had the ideas, would turn them into words but, when read from a  reader’s point of view, suggestions would come her way as well as a few plot blunders. “I would have to come up with changes that would make it work,” she explains.

But she knew, listening to these early readers and taking suggestions from her editor were key to what got the book published.

I think she listened carefully. Right from the start I was excited by the book. I felt very early on that this was an exceptional voice and that feeling never dimmed from beginning to end.

If the ending was something of a bumpy ride, I’m not sure it wasn’t me as a reader who really enjoys the exhilaration of the build-up and often finds the roll-out something of an anti-climax or perhaps a mini let-down.

But here’s holding thumbs that she keeps writing and plays around with the crime genre for a little bit longer.

 I’m excited to see what her unique voice and perspective will come up with as she gains confidence and a following.

I suspect she’s something special.

“When I conceived of If The Dead Could Talk, the idea was that it would be a one shot only and I would give it my all. I can now see that I can try my hand at the crime genre again.

“When I read a cozy mystery, there is something exciting for me as a reader to try and work along with the detective or protagonist. I put together every clue and see how close I am to solving the crime. I want to offer other readers that feeling.”

Who as a first-time published author would not suffer – even if just a light touch of – imposter’s syndrome? But Juliette is learning to beat those battles.
 “I actually have a book published now! People will get to meet Azania. That’s exciting. It’s exhilarating knowing that I’ve introduced her to the world,” she concludes.  

“I love the fact that I can imagine. When I write, I genuinely feel that it’s fine to be me. It’s fine to be Juliette. On a piece of paper, I just run wild with characters, scenarios, dialogue and everything else I  can think of.

“Let me dream a little and say I can picture myself thinking up a bestseller one day. That’s the empowering element of an imagination. I can imagine just about anything.”

That would be my wish for this talented author. I for one would love to read her often in the future.




CHEF PATRON DANIEL LEUSCH CELEBRATES FOUR DECADES OF LA MADELEINE, ONE OF THE CAPITAL CITY’S BEST LOVED RESTAURANTS

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When you are invited to celebrate the 40th birthday of a Pretoria restaurant which has managed to remain on the top ten list in the city from beginning to end, the excitement is huge. DIANE DE BEER pays homage:

Pictures: Hennie Fisher

Chef patron Daniel Leusch and maitre’d Abu Fofana

I have known chef patron Daniel Leusch for as many decades and been a huge fan but I haven’t had a meal for a few years. I’m expecting nostalgia, reminiscing, and glorious food. What I didn’t expect from the classicist is a makeover, subtle as is the secret of his special craft, yet with a specific modern slant which proves why diners keep coming back.

But before I get to the menu, I returned on a Sunday at 2pm for a chat to catch up on the history as well as future dreams.

I walk into a buzzy restaurant where family and friends have packed the room for a hearty and probably heavenly Sunday lunch as my bubbles and freshly baked La Madeleine bread with cheese attest.

Cappuccino of fresh peas

Chef Daniel has long ago tapped into the Tshwane ethos. He knows we are still a traditional society when family rituals come into play. He has many regular diners who started with the grandparents and the parents and eventually, the kids are now the diners. La Madeleine is part of their dining DNA.

He first arrived in Johannesburg in 1976 as part of an adventure which he didn’t know at the time would shape his life. Johannesburg’s Carlton Hotel’s iconic Three Ships restaurant was his first port of call before he moved to the capital city where he started at the Alliance with Chez Daniel, an obvious beginning for a young chef (’77 to ’80) and was then gifted a sponsorship by the director of Boland bank where he opened his own restaurant.

La Madeleine had its start in Esselen Street, Sunnyside in 1984 where Daniel would be cooking for 16 years. This is where he made national news with his famous champagne-injected crayfish. There was a huge outcry but the foodies around the country took note – and with reason.

And finally, today’s setting for La Madeleine which has been the home for this extraordinary chef since 2000. And now he is celebrating one of Pretoria’s best and its 40th anniversary. It’s the longevity, the sustainability, the years of maintaining standards – and never losing his drive to excite diners as we discovered a few weeks ago at our celebratory dinner.

Carpaccio Japanese style

I hadn’t been for a few years because even though I’m still reporting on food and restaurants, I seldomly dine out. It’s been a privilege for a number of decades to be treated by many city restaurants and to share in their triumphs. Daniel and I come a long way and I had visited every restaurant, from the Alliance days, all these years. He has always been able to marvel at the experience he presented me with from the early days and I should have expected it now.

What I didn’t expect is that he was going to excite us (party of four with myself, chef Hennie Fisher and our partners) with beautiful classically based modern food.

I should have known. His generation of European chefs, Daniel notes, were influenced and inspired by the great Paul Bocuse. I had to smile when the cappuccino of fresh pea arrived. He had refined a masterful green pea soup that I remember from earlier days and I knew we were off on one of Daniel’s food fantasies and we were going to have an extraordinary meal.

This was followed by a carpaccio Japanese style (where his son is in the hotel management business) served with diced daikon. Simply sublime and it transported me back to that island of fine cuisine.

Paying tribute to his roots, next were some exquisite Provencal inspired tartlets with delicate fresh and cooked vegetables, a pastry that’s melt-in-the-mouth, shavings of Parmesan and a hint of basil pesto. Heavenly!

And then he came with a delightful surprise. The mains were a classical paella. And as any chef will do, he went to find fish where he knows it will be fresh as fresh can be, in Cyrildene’s Chinatown. The picture tells the story. He couldn’t have picked something more delicious. How can one not feel utterly spoilt when a fine dining chef presents you with something as wonderful as that Spanish classic.

Classic Daniel Leusch Paella

So in a sense, even though his imagination was on high alert, he did opt for the classical. Only it wasn’t what I had imagined it would be.

Then came what he cleverly called a pre-dessert tartlet, filled with a  paste of tomato jam and a raspberry sauce. A marvellous transition to what was to come.

The dessert was next and he showed off his spectacular skills with four different sweet delights. It simply started a merry-go-round at the table as we moved from one to the next and started all over again.

From a homemade ice cream with a salted caramel sauce between crackling brandy snaps; meringue filled with marmalade of fresh strawberries, coconut cream and raspberries; brandy snaps filled with cream, ricotta, raspberry sauce and ice cream. The combo was spectacular and the way a meal should be concluded, all sweetness and light.

Daniel’s wife Carine who many regulars will remember was the pastry chef in earlier times and his daughter Anne, who followed in his footsteps and now cooks in France in the Paris environs, was also a pastry specialist amongst all their other skills, but he’s no slouch and he has obviously well-trained staff.

Like his maitre’d Abu Fofana from Côte d’Ivoire who recently returned to his former post where he is a huge favourite, he takes his cue from Daniel and is perfectly attuned to diners and their needs.

Daniel of course has not changed a jot from when I first met him probably at his first post at the Alliance. He has kept his accent and his familiar manner of introducing the menu and mingling with the diners throughout the meal. He’s wonderful to watch as he moves between tables chatting away while observing what may be needed.

While I was writing at a table on the side, I could hear his voice as he explained the different dishes which meant I was smiling all the time. There’s a charm, a warmth and generosity of spirit when you dine and a desire to keep everyone happy while dining. That’s worth going back for time and again.

I knew – as always – what to expect from the man himself. What was unexpected was the meal and the surprise element, the menu. I wouldn’t have been let down if I was served what I had come to expect as classic Daniel.

But the way he invigorated the menu on the day, the thoughtfulness of inviting us (myself and chef Hennie Fisher who not only took these pictures but also wrote for many decades raving about all his accomplishments) and then overwhelming us with a spread that simply took our breath away, made this 40th celebration something extraordinary. And when I look back and reflect, should have been expected.

That’s why Daniel Leusch could sustain La Madeleine for 40 years. That’s where his heart lies. He still chooses all the produce himself. He knows that’s where the heartbeat is established.

And simply stated: “It’s my life!” says Chef Daniel. What an honour to be given a taste of just that!

NATANIЁL IS A WIZARD WHEN WORKING WITH WORDS

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I never gave much thought to Nataniël’s live talk shows but, because they had become so popular, it was time to investigate. DIANE DE BEER gives her feedback:

So I went to last year’s Fairtree Atterbury Theatre show in Pretoria, and was so impressed that I forgot to take notes. There was little chance of reporting or writing without having  a single note and when he announced the 2024 (he changes topic every year) I was ready to go – which happened a few weeks ago.

It’s always packed, no room for a single late-comer, and while last year’s topic was Pain, this year he focused on our chaotic world and the urge to achieve excellence. “What are we busy doing?” he asked. “What is going on?”

All of this chatter happens at breakneck speed and what I had forgotten was that the auditorium is pitch dark, like in a theatre show. Taking notes would be quite a challenge, but I was determined.

What I hoped to capture would perhaps not be the most accurate version of his magical monologue, but I was hopeful that I would capture the essence and encourage fans to attend future talks.

First off, it’s all in Afrikaans. But that’s always part of his charm. He often complains about a show or a talk which is too serious and not really funny. What escapes him is the way he speaks, his vocabulary and the way he constructs a sentence are unusual and often hysterically funny.

With the focus on the times we live in, he began his talk with one of his irresistible stories which set the tone for the rest of his talk. He can’t but be funny even when he is having a serious conversation. It’s his special formula and what makes you listen while forgetting that you’re actually part of a masterful sermon.

He has always had the gift of the gab. That’s how he makes a living. People hang on  his every word. Why not impart some wisdom while making them laugh? And that’s exactly what he does. Not many can make you smile while telling you how to behave. But he does, and gets paid to do exactly that.

And again, it’s because he knows how to tell a story: whether these are true or fabricated, the life lessons come from the heart – and experience. Being Nataniël, he has an unusual life and people share their secrets. He will juggle and jiggle them around so that even those involved will probably not recognise themselves, and then he will douse it with wit as well as wisdom – and the audience will lap it up.

In the current talk he investigates the need to succeed and sparkle (“prestasie” in Afrikaans, but he was unsure of the English translation as achievement doesn’t quite hit the mark!)

And while fame and celebrity seem to be the hallmark of success in today’s world, he believes there’s more to it than that. Legacy is something that is often talked about yet the individual in question doesn’t experience that, it only comes once they’re dead. “A career is also an achievement,” he suggests.  And at least then, you can share in the satisfaction of having achieved something.

While at school –  something he hated with his whole being – he was often charged by a teacher or someone in authority to participate in a competition of some kind. His response was always, but why? To what end? Who benefits? And what does any of this achieve?

Others again will equate success with money, but having raced through a spectacular career himself, he has had the chance to reflect. For him it has always been the process of getting from beginning to end – whatever the journey might entail. Once you have travelled from one point to another, you can look back, and perhaps make sense of it.

“Success changes your perspective,” he reasons. And for him, 114 productions on (all self-written, music composed, directed and performed), the pain and anxiety have remained. It has never been easy and he still questions the damage accumulated through the years. “It has to impact my health, surely,” he says. “I seem to be in constant pain.”

In his world, he only recognises five iconic individuals: Van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci, neither of whom lived fabulous lives; Shakespeare, who had to act in his own plays to make a living; Einstein whose famous equation explains the energy released in an atomic bomb; and his grandmother who is the individual most often featured in his stories and the one he credits with influencing his life the most.

“I have tried everything but could never recreate the magic she created in her home and on others.”  That’s what he refers to as a natural achievement – not something one tries to do, it simply happens.

Go and listen when you can. Nataniël is one of those people who lives an interesting life because of who he is. It’s not so much the celebrity status, rather the way he views the world that comes through in his talks.

He is naturally wise, more witty than anyone I know or have encountered, and he knows how to tell stories. More than anything, that has probably most endeared him to audiences.

His spectacular shows are something to witness and experience, I never miss those. These latest talk sessions are something completely different yet no less entertaining. As with his shows, you leave the theatre feeling you have gained something – and for everyone it will be different.

And you will die laughing…

He can’t help himself. Even when serious, his inner clown escapes.

29 June 2024

GESELS 2024

11am + 3pm

Fairtree Atterbury Theatre, Pretoria
No children under 15
Book at: seatme.co.za