CAST: Chi Mhende (Oberon/Hippolyta), Caleb Swanepoel (Puck), Roberto Kyle (Theseus/Tatiana), Mark Elderin (Bottom), Jock Kleynhans (Demetrius), Aidan Scott (Lysander), Lisa Tredoux (Helena), Kylie Fisher (Hermia), Sizwesandile Mnisi (Egeus/Snug/Faerie), Tankiso Mamabolo (Mechanical Faerie), Tailyn Ramsamy (Flute/Faerie), Zach Esau (Snout/Faerie) and Roland du Preez (Starveling/Faerie)
SET: Jesse Brooks
LIGHTING: Oliver Hauser
COSTUMES: Michaeline Wessels
VENUE: Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre
DATES: Until November 19
Tailyn Ramsamy (Flute)
It’s not often that a press release is so audacious as to claim that a Shakespeare will be one of the biggest hits of a season!
But with the ingenious Geoffrey Hyland at the helm, aided by his magnificent cast, I have no qualms if they grab those particular bragging rights.
Swept off my feet at the recent Woordfees with this production staged at the openair Libertas Amphitheatre, I was keen to go a second round with these players.
The setting (outside, specifically) might have added an extra sprinkle of magic, but with this Shakespeare, as is usually the case, the players and the play are what count, the director assured me.
And if I look back, even with the magnificent original outdoor setting which lent itself especially to this madcap and weirdly wonderful, romantic bouquet, it was the marvellously talented, youthful cast, fully representative of the clichéd rainbow nation and seen here with such genuine gusto, that stole my heart.
The director was confident that they would pull off the indoor setting and, as we entered the theatre, I immediately loved the stage, which had been transformed into a colourful green space. With a little imagination, you could almost spot the twinkling stars once the auditorium lights went off. And all round there was a sprinkle of fairy dust, I’m sure of it.
That is what brings this colourful play to life so brilliantly. It is the way it has been staged, dressed and lit, as well as an exuberance from the full cast from start to finish. There’s a glorious abundance of brightly coloured cloaks for example, which become part of the emotional impact in the way they are carried and manipulated with every movement. It’s a brightly-coloured, sweeping spectacle.
Robert Kyle (Tatiana) and Mark Elderin (Bottom)
It is in essence a romantic romp and as with any Shakespeare, you have to close off everything around you and take a leap into that world to allow the words to take charge and the actors to whisk you away.
It’s not a play where you want to single out performances because with such a big cast, there are always roles that steal the limelight. But, it is the patchwork of performances, which knits it all together so magnificently. And that is where the true magic lies – the choice of cast. Everyone seemed perfect for their part.
Hyland has quite a few tricks up his sleeve, knows when to throw in a quick slip of a local tongue, trusts audiences to buy into the local accents rather than the Queen’s (sorry, has it changed to King’s?) English, introduces original music which is sung with wonderful whimsy and pushes the production’s energy impulses with great enthusiasm.
It’s difficult not to buy into the dream world of luscious language and love adventures which transports you to a place of laughter and merriment in a way which is a perfect nod to the coming festive season.
Perhaps I was late in discovering Geoffrey Hyland’s theatre smarts, but then it’s not often that plays of this magnitude with so many players are swapped between the Cape and Gauteng.
What a brave move Mr Toerien. And one that hopefully Gauteng audiences will embrace wholeheartedly .
The play absolutely deserves all our attention and accolades. May this be the start of much more touring theatre of this kind.
Experiencing director Geoffrey Hyland’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at this year’s Woordfees a few weeks back, was a revelation. Thrilled to hear that the production was coming to Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre, I immediately touched base with the director to find out more about this astonishing not-to-be-missed Shakespeare. DIANE DE BEER reports:
Scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Photographers Llewellyn de Wet and Mark Wessels.
Tankiso Mamabolo as one of the Faerie’s.
It’s difficult to resist nagging everyone to get tickets for this amazing Shakespeare. I almost missed seeing it at the Woordfees, because I thought I might have lost my head booking for a Shakespeare during a very hectic festival schedule.
Fortunately I was persuaded to go and it was one of the best decisions I made at the festival. Chatting to the director about this particular production, I have even more reason to plead with theatre enthusiasts to go.
“This was the first Shakespeare at Maynardville post Covid,” explains Geoffrey and he elaborates. “Having been through some dark times, the organisers and myself thought: WOW! it’s time to celebrate love, life and exuberance with fantasy and dreams in a wonderful colourful and passionate production.
“Are there deeper things, of course there are deeper things, there always are in Shakespeare, but I think one goes along on this wonderful joyride of misadventure and laughs and that celebration of love and the funny things that humans do to pursue love,” he encourages prospective audiences.
It’s time to take some time-out from the world, to remind ourselves about how wonderful life in all its permutation is, notes Geoffrey. That’s why he selected this particular Shakespeare to kick off Maynardville post-covid, to re-energise this space. The wonderful forest setting in the play was a reflection, which meant it was doubly joyous.
He is often asked about his favourite Shakespeare and of course, it is the one he’s working on at that moment. “That’s the one you dive into and you’re investigating and you’re finding new things all the time,” he says.
When he start with any play, his approach is getting to know the play, reading and more reading, imagining, and listening to music that resonates just to get a feeling of what this thing means to him.
“I can’t do it if it doesn’t mean something to me, if it doesn’t light my fuse. I know I’m not going to be able to light the fuse of the actors, or that of the audience, so I have to find my way into a particular production.”
What got him going was watching kids playing with bubbles, and suddenly he thought, this is the play, “these wonderful bubbles flying, joyously, madly, they make no sense whatsoever and yet they lift the spirit.”
He had found his first connection, the lightness of fun, and the absolute beauty of those brief moments of life that are so captivating.
Only then came the company – the actors. The producers gave him a free hand in choosing who he wanted.
“It’s never about individuals. It’s about people you know are going to meld and enjoy each other. I needed people who would be team players rather than individual stars. They’re all stars believe me, but they needed to give and come to the play with an open heart and to come along with me as a director,” he emphasises.
Because they had a very short time to work, he also needed a cast who would be willing to give extra time. They needed to understand instinctively that they had to give everything to the role, he stressed.
What he enjoys about actors, is their ability (with him) to find their character. “I don’t come with a preconceived notion. You are the character and we must find that character in you,” is what he shares with his actors.
“My part as the director is to evoke the performance from what is in front of me and I need people who will continue to give to me and allow me to shape what is already in there as part of them.”
“I’ve never worked with a group of people together who are so much part of each other and giving and taking in equal measure between each other. The important thing for me as a director is to make the actors feel beautiful, then they will give of their best and I think the way we’ve come to do the production, they do.”
He describes the way they want to be on stage, bringing an exuberance and an energy, and because they’re tapping into themselves, into their life force, they are enjoying playing in front of an audience who then plays with them.
But all of that happens in a wonderful discipline of recreating a performance, never overdoing it, but sparking off each other all the time.
They’ve been very lucky, the audiences have responded beautifully and have enjoyed every single performance. And I can attest to that.
With Shakespeare especially, Geoffry thinks this is where teachers play a huge role in young people’s lives. “I was drawn to Shakespeare by a teacher. I think I was in grade five and went to see a production at Maynardville. I was captured for life and I went on reading and being interested. It inspired and unlocked something in me and probably was one of the impulses that made me the creative person that I feel I am today.
“Having had that experience as a young person, it has been one of my goals to inspire the same kind of experiences in other people. It’s a desire I have to make them feel the same things that Shakespeare had made me feel. I don’t think it is only about feeling, but rather unlocking yourself, potential things within yourself and once actors get it, there’s no going back.”
Because the two previous seasons were both performed outdoors, how would Geoffrey counter that missing element at Montecasino, but he seems to have all the answers and as a recent devotee, I’m going to take his word.
“There’s always give and take. With outdoor theatre, because you don’t have so much control on the technicalities, you need to focus completely on the actor in front of you and anything else that comes with that is a bonus.
“It’s a decoration and added depth of flavour, so that magical forest setting of Maynardville is impossible to duplicate.
“However, this production was created for and by Maynardville. We can’t physically duplicate it, but it has inspired the actors and in a sense they have got Maynardville, that beautiful energy, inside their performance. So having strongly focussed on the actors in creating this production, I still believe that they are what is the essential heart of the show.”
There will be small changes, he agrees, but the actors will be there to tell this wonderfully mad story and that is what you focus on when changing a venue. “It’s that live person in front of you that creates the magic.”
That’s exactly what he has achieved with this amazing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. One of the things I thought while watching it for the first time, was that this was the perfect introduction to Shakespeare if you’ve never seen any of his great works.
If you look at the winners of this year’s Aardklop productions, it is the veterans who grabbed all the awards.
A very surprised but bursting with pride Elzabé Zietsman reigned supreme with three wins for Femme is Fatale.
I remember when I first saw this in-your-face production at the Vrye Fees last year – it hit hard. In a country where gender-based violence reaches pandemic-like numbers, you need to grab audiences by the throat. And that’s exactly what this singer/actress does with a magnificent gloves-off script and an attitude that dares anyone not to take notice.
From her initial on-stage look until she strips down to throw the horror of what is happening to individuals in this country in your face, she doesn’t make a wrong move. It’s attention grabbing for all the right reasons and takes someone as experienced, brave and talented as Ms Zietsman to swing high and low with your emotions.
It’s one of those performances that will stay with you forever and it is her intention, even before winning for Best Musical Performance, Best Music-Driven Production and Best Overall Winner, to find a way to take the show to schools across the country. And in her acceptance speech, she sung the praises of her accompanist Tony Bentel – with reason.
Hopefully, this has empowered her plan of action and promotional campaign. If she can’t encourage change with this one, the world is a really sad place.
Sandra Prinsloo’s performance in Moeder also never flagged. Again, I’ve seen it many times, mostly for her performance and an astonishing script as well as a near-flawless production directed by Christiaan Olwagen.
I’ve said a few times that his place is on stage, it’s where he shines brightest, even though he will probably prove me wrong sooner rather than later.
But he has such a good eye, a filmic vision and the heart to realise that Prinsloo could and should play this woman. It’s one of her best performances ever and I’ve seen many. At the festival I heard people often praising her performance in Masterclass because, of course, Ms Prinsloo hardly ever appears at a festival in just a single production.
I hope she leaves notes for her younger counterparts about concentration, focus and stamina. And again, as so many times in her life, she was rewarded for an astonishing performance in Moeder with the production named the Best Theatre Production as well as Best Production by an independent group of art lovers, Aardklop Hartsvriende (Friends of the heart).
A scene with Bettie Kemp and Dawid Minnaar in Mirakel.
Another stalwart, David Minnaar, played her flawed partner and, as always, he knew how to pitch just the right tone as the errant husband, but it was in Marthinus Basson’s tour de force Mirakel where he was given a part which especially revealed his comedic qualities.
It is one of Reza de Wet’s lighter works although the message is as hard-hitting and relevant as anything she has written. But Minnaar with Basson as his champion walked a fine line with great relish which added to the performance.
I felt that he was enjoying the play as much as anyone watching it. Because of the travelling theatre company and its dramatics that rule this play, he could charge with dramatic fervour through the hysterics of the flailing players all trying their best to make their lives and livelihood work.
It captures that world which has remained almost unchanged with such dexterity as only a De Wet/Basson partnership can achieve thus allowing a Dawid Minnaar to soar and win as Best Actor and Basson to pick up yet another Best Director award.
An ENTRANCE by the delightful Eben Genis while the company’s leading couple sleep on.
In the same play, Eben Genis (above) also announced his welcome return to the stage to great delight of theatre goers and was warmly received with a Best Supporting Actor award. It is his subtlety, his nuanced excursion into this world, which is a reminder of the fine actor he is.
The Best new Afrikaans text was claimed by Philip Rademeyer who wrote and directed Goed wat wag om te gebeur, the Afrikaans version of The Graveyard starring Gideon Lombard, Antoinette Kellerman and Emma Kotze.
It deals with Hendrik’s return to his childhood home where he struggles with past demons including violence, blame and addiction, all the while trying to suppress his anger and hurt with drink. The only niggle was a text that would have been even better with some clever culling, and this was probably the most common culprit in too many productions.
At a festival where the experienced artists were the ones who often captured the audiences and my praise, I was again overwhelmed by Nataniël’s Ring van Vuur. It is no secret that he is one of my most cherished performers, but there’s reason for that. And again he proved me right with a show that was simply sublime. Not only did he give one of his best performances, he also introduced me to guitarist Loki Rothman whose name was familiar, but no one had ever mentioned his particular flamboyance on a guitar.
Not only does Nataniël give us a quality show, he is also generous with the artists he introduces to a wider audience. That’s the sign of a great and confident artist. I know most music fans will be familiar with Rothman’s prowess on the guitar, but because I am mainly a theatre writer/critic, I have never had the privilege.
Most of these productions made sharp u-turns as they winged their way down to Stellenbosch with the much larger Woordfees, welcoming audiences as Aardklop was waving goodbye.
And again, there was much to praise with a festival bulging with new presentations and productions, enough to have everyone smiling. It’s not about the one or the other. Both have equal right to their audiences, they shouldn’t compete and if I have to make deductions about attendance, both have a strong following for their particular brand. Mostly it probably has to do with where audiences live and how far they’re willing to travel. Convenience, I suspect, will be the determining factor.
As a working journalist, I was blessed to go to both.
And if I have to start with a production that had me thinking, shocked me to my core because of content yet filled me with admiration for the inspirational Jaco Bouwer and cast for tackling such a daring and dangerous text – in the best sense of the word.
Melissa Myburgh (left) with Tinarie van Wyk Loots pictured with Myburgh (right) in the startling Die Vegetariër.
Bouwer, one of our most exciting directors has been working in the television and film world for the last while and has been missed because of his brand of theatre, which always pushes boundaries and challenges audiences to engage with tough issues rather than turning away and tuning out.
From the moment you enter and witness the amazing set of Die Vegetariër, your mind starts racing. There’s something pristine and perfect about the space and yet it’s a slaughterhouse, which is an ominous sign even before the action starts.
Die Vegetariër pictured by Nardus Engelbrecht
But in typical Bouwer fashion, he hits you in the solar plexus from start to finish and while you might be reeling throughout trying to contain your emotions racing ahead, it’s the unflinching text and cast that stay with you as you keep unravelling the lives of the people who share their stories.
And you keep coming back to the slab of meat you keep staring at as you enter and the meat hook that just hangs there menacingly until it captures the crux of what you are witnessing. It’s hardcore, but in the world we live in with gender-based violence such a scourge (as already mentioned), we have almost become immune not only as individuals but as a society.
The cast – Stian Bam, Wilhelm van der Walt, Tinarie van Wyk Loots and Melissa Myburgh – are staggering in this brutally honest portrayal of life for far too many as physical and psychological abuse becomes the common language in relationships. And the young Myburgh deserves a special mention because her character’s youth embodies vulnerability and defencelessness in all its harshness and is the most exposed.
It’s not easy to watch, but because of the approach of everyone involved, from Willem Anker’s adaptation of Han Kang’s The Vegetarian to Bouwer’s brilliant conception and the way he seamlessly pulls it all together from the enveloping visuals to the overwhelming performances, it’s simply a privilege – and one that stays and niggles at you forever.
Hold Still with the astounding acting couple Mwenya Kabwe and Andrew Buckland.
On a different spectrum but as challenging, Jay Pather’s Hold Still with an extraordinary text by Nadia Davids tackles refugees, one of the toughest issues in today’s unravelling world as we roll from one crisis to the next. And if you look closer, refugees are at the centre of most of them. Think Gaza.
But what she does is take a model modern couple and make them face today’s harsh reality. There’s a reason refugees cause such heartache and often horror. There aren’t solutions or none that is workable, so many simply turn their backs.
It’s gritty yet glorious theatre as two veteran actors (Andrew Buckland and Mwenya Kabwe) star as a delightful couple who lovingly banter away until the very essence of their family relationships is blown apart. Both these actors take your breath away with performances that are in your face and completely in the moment. They’re complemented by the two youngsters in the cast, Lyle October as their son and Tailyn Ramsamy as his friend in search of refugee status, hence the dilemma.
As the mother so aptly confesses: they sold their son a story about their moral selves which they themselves had come to believe. It’s real world issues, tough to work through and easier to ignore, yet this is the perfect platform to grapple with our reality today.
An exuberant Caleb Swanepoel in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Picture: Llewellyn de Wet.
And the third piece that blew me away was Geoffrey Hyland’s Maynardville Shakespeare production, which I am thrilled to announce is coming to Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino in November. If you see nothing else this year, don’t miss this production.
It is simply glorious and will have you screaming with laughter from beginning to end. I cannot imagine a better introduction to Shakespeare than this play that symbolises everything that this fantastic playwright is about. It’s entertainment writ LARGE and simply the perfect end-of-year production with an astounding cast put together magnificently.
My only qualm is that it was first staged at Maynardville, Cape Town’s glorious outdoor theatre venue, and I saw it at the Libertas amphitheatre in Stellenbosch, but with Hyland’s astonishing artistry, I’m sure you won’t even notice. Never before would I have thought that I would be so happy to see a Shakespeare at a festival. That it was included in the programme, was simply a stroke of genius.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a spectacle in colour and charm. Picture: Mark Wessels.
Just go – and tell everyone around you not to miss this fantastic show. You won’t regret it and start this festive season in the best possible way. (See full review once it has opened with a run from 8 to 19 November.)
I have singled out only a handful of productions which I saw at the festivals. There are many more to praise, but I grabbed those few that grabbed both my head and heart and wouldn’t let go …
Author Damon Galgut with Sylvaine Strike and suggestions by the cast
DIRECTOR
Sylvaine Strike
CAST
Chuma Sopotela, Rob van Vuuren, Kate Normington, Frank Opperman, Jane de Wet, Jenny Stead, Albert Pretorius, Sanda Shandu, Cintaine Schutte
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR AND ARCHIVIST
Kirsten Harris
SET AND LIGHTING DESIGN
Joshua Lindberg
MUSIC DIRECTOR, SOUND DESIGN AND ORIGINAL SCORE
Charl-Johan Lingenfelder
CHOREOGRAPHY AND INTIMACY CO-ORDINATOR
Natalie Fisher
COSTUME DESIGN
Penny Simpson
VENUE
The Market Theatre
DATES
Until November 5
Jane de Wet, Rob van Vuuren and Jenny Stead.
One has to admire artist Sylvaine Strike’s process when she decides on a project. It’s all systems go and in Strike’s world, the focus is unfailing.
She spent 18 months hard at work on this extraordinary piece of theatre, which has finally reached The Market Theatre.
But there are a few things to take on board before you arrive. It’s based on a book, Damon Galgut’s The Promise, and that means that it is her interpretation of Galgut’s writing and script, even if he was closely involved throughout.
Also, it is two hours 40 minutes long and for many less-experienced theatre goers, that might be quite
an ask. One has to be theatre fit.
Albert Pretorius and Sanda Shandu as two policemen
But for me there’s no question that it has to be seen, and a very packed and excited audience obviously in anticipation was ready and waiting on opening day. Even when we arrived to collect tickets there was an audible buzz and it was lovely to experience a theatre event of this kind. The last one was the August Wilson production at the Joburg Theatre last year.
Five minutes into the production, I already had a smile. For this one, Strike created her own theatre language in which to tell her story and for me, it couldn’t have been further from the language and storytelling of the book, yet both had a very individual and personal flavour which I loved.
I almost felt as though I had walked into a kind of grotesque fairy tale for adults and, while the approach might have felt comical to some, it was anything but because of the content and the story it was telling.
Frank Opperman.
It was also clear that as individuals, those watching the play would have to buy into the concept – and for me that wasn’t a tough ask. It’s why we watch theatre, to catch those productions where those participating take risks to give audiences a storytelling experience that’s novel and best suited to a particular text.
The Strike brand has always been about her individual style and, while she pays close attention to the text, her language is much more than just something we listen to. She uses the stage and everything visual as part of the ensemble and then she adds very specific movements and rhythms as well – as in this instance, a soundscape by genial music man Charl-Johan Lingenfelder with a kind of music/sound box on the side of the extraordinary stage designed insightfully by Joshua Lindberg, who was also responsible for fantastic lighting (so delighted that the family name lives on in our theatre landscape).
And that in itself sets the tone for this topsy-turvy world the Swart family inhabit. The matriarch of the family, seemingly the one that held them steady with a strong hand and a moral compass, has died. Thus we find all of them in turmoil as they come together for the family funeral (one of four that determine four periods in a country gone mad).
But there’s one obstacle – Amor (Jane de Wet), the youngest sibling, had heard Ma (Kate Normington) extract a promise from Pa (Frank Opperman) that he would give Salome (Chuma Sopotela) her house on the furthest corner of the farm, mainly because she was the one who diligently and lovingly looked after the mother in her illness.
A familiar scene in many white South African households and the rest of the family simply disengage while Amor keeps at it relentlessly – determinedly – as their conscience. The ensemble of nine work well together as a group and individually, although I suspect, audiences will have different favourites.
Cintaine Schutte and Albert Pretorius .
Amongst the men, my favourite performer was Albert Pretorius who even though his many different characters often had a comical edge, he manages such a fine artistic line and knows just how to hold it back. Frank Opperman also captured his different characters masterfully. Rob van Vuuren is at the heart of the piece as Anton Swart.
Chuma Sopotela is the key of the piece as both Salome and the storyteller, and in both roles her strong presence holds The Promise, both in the production and at the centre of the story. She was the perfect fit.
Each one of the performers added to the whole. Because many roles were played by each actor, some characters worked better than others, and who you like or discard will be a personal preference. I don’t think with the adopted style there’s a right or wrong, it’s a preference thing.
So how did it all come together. It’s a HUGE production. I suspect, especially while writing this review, that one needs more than one or two viewings to truly appreciate the breadth of the drama and staging. I can simply stand back in awe.
What for me personally would have worked better, would have been to lose most of the second half (obviously not the end). Up to the interval, everything worked perfectly, but then it started to unravel. A trim of an hour would have been my ask and would have served the actors and the story better.
It was as if sustaining the production for swo long was too big an ask and detracted rather than added to the final product.
Should people go? What a question! It’s a theatrical experience. There’s a cast that does exquisite work, moments that will take your breath away, a set, costumes and lighting that all contribute to the bigger picture and, finally, a director who puts herself out there, pushes as far as she dares, breaks boundaries and develops ways of telling stories that keep you riveted.
You might not love every minute, but you have to admire the artistry, the vision and the theatricality with scope that’s daunting yet inevitable when Strike decides to do it. And we’re the beneficiaries.
Time was the rare gift that celebrated director Sylvaine Strike was given with her latest production, The Promise, written and adapted (from his novel) by author Damon Galgut. She tells DIANE DE BEER more about the extraordinary process which started more than 18 months ago and is on at The Market (until November 5) following its recent Cape Town run:
“In a way, The Promise selected me,” she explains, because Damon approached her to adapt it for the stage, thinking that she would probably be the right fit because he had foreseen that it would have to be done very theatrically and very physically if it were to have a theatrical life at all.
She was utterly smitten by the idea, but insisted that Damon adapt it alongside her because she was reluctant to tinker with his text. “I needed him to travel the road and structure it in a way that he would feel could live as theatrical version.” She had read the novel twice even before he contacted her and was delighted.
The Promise with the full cast as well as author, Damon Galgut (left) and Sylvaine Strike (right).
When it came to casting, it began with finding the right person to set the bar from a physical perspective and she knew from the outset when reading The Promise and imagining who her Anton could be, that it was Rob van Vuuren.
Gifted this opportunity of a role that is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Rob was thrilled just to delve into this exquisite character and the very many facets of it. Sylvaine knew he would be the one who she would work off in finding the rest of the family, which includes Frank Opperman as Anton’s father, an Afrikaans patriarch, Kate Normington as his mother, jenny Stead as Astrid, his middle sister, and the young Jane de Wet as Amor
“The pivotal and most important character of Salome is played by Chuma Sepotela, who holds this exquisite part in two dimensions in the sense that she’s also the narrator of the piece, as Chuma herself, who plays the story conjuror.”
Sandu Shando plays Lukas, Salome’s son, and “the amazing Albert Pretorius and Cintaine Schutte, both adding deep dimension, comedy and pathos in the roles of Tannie Marina and Okkie as well as the many characters they portray,” she concludes.
In total it’s a cast of 9 and, before anything else, they did a workshop with Sylvaine to discover the physical language as the blueprint to the play.
In rehearsals: the cast and director Sylvaine Strike.
With both the director and writer growing up in Pretoria, their coming together was almost written in the stars. “I think growing up in Pretoria and being aware of the glaring chasm between the haves and the have nots, the ability for Pretoria to ride that knife edge between ignoring the political reality, the lies that have been woven to its children, the incredible duality between darkness and light, tragedy and comedy that this book engages with and its calling out for us to face the shame for how we lived,” all of that made the book irresistible.
“There’s no escape but to look it in the eye, which is what this was and showing what it felt like for me. The novel forced me to do it as it named everything I was feeling growing up there as a child and being a teenager there and sensing that something was so terribly wrong with it.
The full cast on stage. Photographer: Claude Barnardo.
“Four decades of Pretoria so distinctly captured, I rose to the challenge of telling the story on stage because I wanted to reach people with it and make them feel what it felt like for me to read it and everything it made me feel to confront our whiteness in its brutal hideousness and its complexity and own it.”
Once the decision was made, she and Damon sat for two solid weeks unpacking the novel. At first he really battled with seeing how it could be put on stage. Sylvaine thinks that in his mind the locations were so specific that it took some time for them to understand the kind of language it would need in order to tell the story.
“We both agreed that the very fluid narrative that Damon captures and writes in, a narrative that changes perspective all the time, changes its mind all the time, needed to come from a chorus almost in the Greek tragedy sense, to comment on the action, to speak to the hero or the anti-hero, to contain their thoughts, and to move swiftly through the action alongside it.”
Scenes on stage. (Pictures: Claude Barnardo)
Neither the reader nor the writer could hold on to all their darlings. They knew they had to lose certain bits of the novel, cutting and culling, choosing only the very essential parts of the story, and look at compressing it into a time frame that would suit theatre, so much more condensed than in a book.
They also needed to find a theatrical language and a physical language that was able to edit between time and place very swiftly, where actors could age from one decade to the next simply by using their bodies. Damon then proceeded to write five drafts which incorporated this language and refined it more and more and more.
In between the first and second draft they had a workshop which Damon attended in which she worked with her cast and at which Charl-Johan Lingenfelder (music/soundscape) and Joshua Lindberg (set and lighting design ) as well as Penny Simpson (costumes) were present. “It was a collaborate effort to reach a place where script was done and created,” she explains.
Wearing her heart on her sleeve, director Sylvaine Strike.
Photographer: Martin Kluge
In conclusion, after all the hard work, the introspection, a fantastic cast, long hours and hard work, she hopes audiences take a good hard look at our country – and a soft look as well. “And by that I mean allowing us to enter its deep humanity and inhumanity, looking into a mirror, admitting our own whiteness, hearing it, not making excuses for it, not trying to explain it, but most of all really looking at the relationship we have as South Africans with each other.
“There’s also the microcosm of a family and its domestic worker Salome, which is a microcosm for the dynamics within our country, the difficulties, the obstacles, the promises made and broken, the lack of care we have for one another, the care in some aspects, about our country looking at itself, not being spoken down to, but simply observing itself, taking a step back to see more clearly, not back in time, just to get more focus on where we’re at.
“And what I love about The Promise is that it doesn’t offer any solutions, just gives us a glimpse of what we have done and what we have become over the last four decades of our country’s democracy.”
Prolific artist Diek Grobler is always creating and busy with different art projects, each of which feeds the other. DIANE DE BEER popped in to his studio for a visit to see what he’s up to and what is exciting him at the moment. It is never just one thing and it changes frequently:
Self-portrait 1 and 2.
When you visit artist Diek Grobler in his studio (now at his home), he is hard at play. And his current object of desire making demands on his time is his latest most precious piece of equipment called a pinscreen.
There are only a handful of these animation machines in the world, and for the longest time, Diek has been playing with the idea of being one of those exclusive artists who could work on what he calls the slowest animation tool in the world.
The artist at play on his latest animation tool, the pinscreen.
Being one of our most avid and successful animators (amongst all his other artistic accomplishments), he has been visiting different animation festivals around the world. It was at one of these where he first saw and lost his heart to the pinscreen. And he was really at the festival to pitch his most recent animation film Laaste Woord (Last Word).
It took quite a while for him to take action, but when it means you have to sell your studio to make that final move, that’s what it takes. And even though that sounds pretty drastic, that’s what artists do when they are driven to create.
This is how he explains this latest acquisition: “It’s a screen with 100 000 pin-sized holes with very thin needles stuck into them. The screen is lit from a particular angle and the needles throw shadows. They are manipulated by the artist from the back and front of the screen to ‘paint’ a picture.”
Pinscreen images: Human volcano (left) and Three domesticated foxes on a field trip.
It’s painstakingly slow but quite magnificent to watch the picture emerge. And what intrigued this particular animator is that it has taught him to draw in a new and different way. You can see his eyes light up as he explains to someone with no clue how the contraption works.
But I can see the results, both in the artist and on the pinscreen. And as he is mostly teaching himself, learning by trial and error, he is going to develop new techniques and applications for years to come. I have long been a Grobler fan and can’t wait to see how it is going to influence his work.
Already with his upcoming exhibition at the Association of Arts Pretoria on October 7, he will be showing some of the stills he has made.
And while it seems to be all-consuming at the moment, don’t think this is it. Another endeavour that keeps him busy is genius because it serves many purposes. For quite some time now, Diek has found a novel yet artistic way to make money which he then uses to finance bigger ventures.
The Dancer (overlapping frames).Die storm.
He makes an artwork every day, postcard size and quite exquisite. These he sells online to the first bidder, each one for R500. It sounds easy, I know, until you have to do it. Come up with a particular concept, execute it and have it be good enough to send into the world. This current series is titled Stories of Sunlight and Shadow. What he enjoys is the immediacy, the spontaneity and even the reimagining from other work.
Diek says he has put some out there that he personally didn’t like, yet sent them anyway and someone loved them. Even artists don’t always like what they produce, which doesn’t mean that there’s no artistic merit. I have watched longingly as these tiny nuggets appear and are snapped up before I can react. And when something hasn’t sold, he might always rework or repurpose it at another stage.
Déjà Vu.
But back to the exhibition, which is titled Déjà Vu, and the name suggests everything about the intent of the artist. “It came very easily,” says Diek who buys into the thinking that there’s nothing new in the world that hasn’t been done somewhere else or even by yourself.
And yet in quite novel fashion he was inspired to paint in more colourful fashion by a particular need. “I still had paint left, but in the brightest colours I don’t often use. I decided to use these before I went out to purchase even more,” he explains.
Teaching the black dog new tricks.
As I looked at the work, I knew there was something different but couldn’t put my finger on it … immediately. The style was perhaps a touch busier than usual, the stories more layered and then there’s this shock of colour. Diek notes that he’s always been an admirer of the German painter Max Beckmann, described as a draughtsman, printmaker, sculptor and writer.
It is especially his compositions that intrigued him. “He positions people, for example, where they shouldn’t be,” says Diek and when you see his latest work, you will see what he means.
He is also an MA supervisor at the Open Window University in Zambia, which he enjoys and then, because of his travels to various animation festivals, he has become a popular speaker specifically on South African animation across the world. He has a particular soft spot for a festival in Zagreb (Capital of Croatia) and a Chinese visitor who attended a talk of his, has invited him to speak at a festival in China at the end of October .
Clockwise: Chorus line: Harbour guard; Flotilla.
In the meantime, he is also spending two months (November and December) at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris where the Association of Arts, Pretoria has two apartments. His new toy will not be traveling along so Diek will be practising and working with the concept palimpsest (something reused or reworked but still bearing traces of its earlier self) for the next Venice Biennale in April 2024.
Take a breath, and let’s return to Déjà Vu which is first on the agenda. “It was all about taking stock of all the things I’ve worked on,” he says. And that’s quite something but if you know his work, you will recognise that distinctive Diek Grobler touch – yet with a new edge. And that’s exactly what artists do. They find a way of changing and developing while always holding on to their very particular style.
October is a month packed with performances for one of our most prolific performers, Nataniël. He tells DIANE DE BEER about his punishing schedules as he presents three shows – all completely different, yet all with one thing in common, the artist and his creativity:
It all begins with Momentum Beleggings Aardklop which is back in Potchefstroom following the upheavals of the pandemic
Ring van Vuurattempts to bind five fiery elements together: original music from more than three decades; original stories as only he can imagine; the rhythms and techniques of countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Peru; a shimmering set of costumes designed by his personal designer Floris Louw; and seven world class musicians.
Charl du Plessis on keyboards is joined by Werner Spies (bass) and Peter Auret (bass) as well as four brilliant guitar players: Juan Oosthuizen, Loki Rothman, Leon Gropp and Luke van der Merwe.
He promises to present 90 minutes of heartache, humour, heat, virtuosity and rhythms.
As part of the Aardklop festivities, the show will be presented on October 3 at 3 and 7pm in the Beeld Auditorium
Nataniël follows this with a short new season titled ROME ’62
On October 10 to 15, he returns to Pretoria’s Atterbury Theatre.
At a fair in the Free State, there’s a stall that sells second hand clothes. In between the rather tired-looking garments, there’s an unusual outfit, handmade by an acclaimed Italian designer. This discovery a few years back, was the first sighting of what has eventually turned into this particular show.
From family secrets, suspicion, stunning strangers, international travel, legendary films, timeless radio hits to exuberant fashion and the most dramatic designs, everything is included with stories in both English and Afrikaans, as well as music in abundance, brand new as well as six decades old.
Charl du Plessis (piano), Werner Spies (bass), Peter Auret (drums) and Wernd van Staden (cello) will be the accompanying orchestra.
Finally a performance that Nataniël is hugely excited about and describes as his best:
Titled MASS FOR THE GOOD PRINCES it is a follow-up of last year’s successful DIE SMITSTRAAT SUITE. This one though is his first full length musical mass based on the classical structure of a composition with five, six or seven parts, which is a prayer for goodness, new leadership and the hope of a new generation.
The mass will be sung in Latin and English with stories and descriptions in Afrikaans.
As before, he shares the stage with Ockie Vermeulen (organ),
Charl du Plessis (keyboard), Juan Oosthuizen (guitar), Werner Spies (bass), Peter Auret (drums and percussion) and the Akustika Chamber Choir led by Christo Burger.
When I look at festivals, what they have to offer, I always go to theatre first. It’s my passion, people who tell stories. Fortunately, I know that stories are an integral part of the arts and are told in different ways. That’s what makes a festival such a delight.
Die Moeder with Sandra Prinsloo and Dawid Minnaar. Picture: Emma Wiehman.
But let’s start with theatre. If you haven’t seen Sandra Prinsloo’s Die Moeder yet or even if you have, see it again. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime performances even if she has had many of those. It’s a story of a woman ageing who has lost her heart and her soul as she feels discarded and left out of the dance of life.
That might sound horrific, but the text and the ensemble cast, including the magnificent Dawid Minnaar, Ludwig Binge and Ashley de Lange with exciting directing by Christiaan Olwagen, present huge rewards.
Bettie Kemp and Dawid Minnaar in Mirakel.
On a lighter note, Marthinus Basson, a Reza de Wet genius, presents probably her funniest play, titled Mirakel. With another fantastic cast, including Rolanda Marais, Carla Smith, Dawid Minnaar, Edwin van der Walt, Bettie Kemp and Ebin Genis, it takes us back in time when theatre was presented by traveling companies, which went from town to town, region to region.
That already puts a smile on my face, and when you get this almost ragtag band of actors together, trying to save their lives by enhancing their livelihood with all the drama of the time and the company, it’s a scream. Just seeing Minnaar, who we are used to seeing on stage in serious mode, is a delight as he lights up the room with his angst and artistic temperament.
Braam en die Engel with Joannie Combrink, de Klerk Oelofse, Rehane Abrahams and Shaun Oelf, directed by Nico Scheepers, has all the elements for something quite enchanting. Add to that Kanya Viljoen who adapted the text from a YA book with the eponymous title, Grant van Ster as choreographer, Franco Prinsloo as composer and Scheepers and Nell van der Merwe on props and puppets as well as set, costume and lighting design, it’s a no-brainer.
Described as a magic realism experience for the whole family, this sounds worth driving for and not to be missed. I don’t even know the book although the title does the trick, but the artists involved get my backing all the way.
Geon Nel in Hoerkind. Picture: Gys Loubser.
Also based on a book, Hoerkind, written by Herman Lategan and adapted by Francois Toerien, tells the writer’s own story about a life in tatters when as a six-year-old he is sent to an orphanage. His stepfather shoots at him, at 13 he is stalked by a paedophile, and he turns to drink and drugs to stay sane, this solo production is directed by Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck, with Geon Nel in the title role.
The young boy’s missteps are many as he tries to survive. It’s a hair-raising story of loss and triumph in a world that is feels as if it is against him as he valiantly fights to survive.
Goed wat wag om te gebeur. Picture: Nardus Engelbrecht
Another debut production, Goed Wat Wag Om te Gebeur, has impeccable credentials with a cast featuring Antoinette Kellerman, Gideon Lombard and Emma Kotze with Philip Rademeyer as playwright and director (reworked in Afrikaans from The Graveyard).
Hendrik returns home after 15 years but, because the house is deserted, he decides to wait in the cellar where he spent his childhood years. It is empty, but the family’s secrets and history thicken the air and form part of the foundation of the house. Three figures keep appearing – his hardened sister, his petite mother and his lively girlfriend … and secrets and lies come to the surface.
Droomwerk. Picture: Lise Kuhn.
Droomwerk spotlights Jill Levenberg, Ben Albertyn, Johann Nel, Tyrish Mili and Johann Vermaak, directed by Kanya Viljoen and Lwanda Sindaphi. It unfolds as a dream as the title suggests. Petrus is the one who dreams about his family’s complex past: his ancestral mother, Diana of Madagascar, is looking for her daughter; and his grandfather, an apartheid senator, is dying.
The play deals with conflict, alienation and disillusionment. Will Petrus find the answers that bring him peace? Written by Pieter Odendaal, the text has already garnered an award for the best drama by the ATKV Woordveertjies.
Cindy Swanepoel and Zak Henrdrikz star in Henrietta Gryffenberg’s text 1 (Een) – described as a tragicomedy about love. Directed by Alby Michaels with choreography by Craig Morris and original music by Coenraad Rall (Amanda Strydom’s accompanist), it’s all about once upon a time … there were two people so fond of one another that they grew,the one into the other.
With too much togetherness, the two eventually decide it’s time to separate … but which one will survive this miraculous ordeal?
This tongue-in-cheek production looks with a slight jaundiced eye at the ancient themes of love and transience while placing it in an absurd context. Are human beings likely to find their perfect partner or are the chances just endlessly slim?
It’s a challenging piece, which should translate perfectly on stage with hopefully much laughter at the fallibility of man.
Two strong solo productions include Marion Holm, a seasoned actress who works wonderfully with words and life as she experiences it. She has her own style, a way of sharing her stories that are hysterical and sometimes quite harrowing but everything is done with such hilarity, it’s laughter from beginning to end.
On a dramatic note, Je-ani Swiegers stars in Die Vrou Op Die Dak, which tells the story of a woman who flees to the roof of her house where she hopes to find the answers to a life that has suddenly become impossible. Everything she thought she knew is disintegrating and she hopes this fresh perspective might bring fresh insights.
And don’t miss out on the latest offerings from the grand dames of cabaret, Elzabé Zietsman(with Tony Bentel in the perfectly pitched Femme is Fatale) and Amanda Strydom (Amber/Ombré). Their staying power is unique as they keep refining their artistry.
It’s a lucky packet of plays with a selection of everything one could possibly wish for when going to a festival.
When you see artist Ansa Clacey’s multimedia paintings at the exhibition The Silence in-between at the Pretoria Association of Art, stories pop into your head. It’s the fairytale quality of her work, the colours, the titles as well as the fact that she plays with paint and threads. Sometimes she paints, other times she works with needle and thread and often she combines the two. She shares her story with DIANE DE BEER:
Artist Ansa Clacey with her work.
Ansa Clacey’s current exhibition specifically explores the silence in-between the fragments and threads of our own stories. Because she is constantly telling her own stories, she assumes everyone does that. And it is especially that presumption which informs her work.
She can take you through the exhibition and tell each artwork’s story, but what she really wants, is that her audience will find their own stories as they engage with her work.
She can hardly think of a time when she wasn’t drawing and on her first school day, she was thrilled when the teacher asked them to draw specific shapes. But with her imagination and ability to draw, she chose her own shapes.
Time Weaves a Wicked Tapestry – Embriodery on Linen (002)
We are all familiar with those moments when you are expected to do things exactly as told and she was immediately taken to task for not following instructions. The trauma lingered for a long time, but fortunately, her natural instincts couldn’t be suppressed.
Years later, after arriving at Potchefstroom University where she was going to study (she thinks the initial plan was German and Geography), she spotted final auditions for a Fine Arts degree. The object she was asked to draw was a green pepper.
The result was not what was expected and she still recalls that she had no knowledge of technique. But her talent was spotted, described as raw, and she was accepted and enrolled for the degree.
Lost and found 2 – Mixed media on paper (002)
Her parents who were funding her studies first heard of this career change from their local dominee who had bumped into Ansa and she was called home to explain. But things steamed ahead fortunately.
Following her studies, she joined the SABC’s art department where she worked on children’s programmes like Liewe Heksie and Wielie Walie, drama programmes and anything that needed a prop or a puppet. “We even had to manipulate the puppets,” she tells. But she learnt a lot and expanded her skills.
Further studies were required for this restless soul always on the lookout for new knowledge. So she acquired a fashion design certificate, which turned her head into yet another direction, and also meant that she started painting again, while also teaching at different fashion academies.
The Protection of the Ancient May Fire – Embroidery on Silk Organza (002)
These days, painting is her life and she says that everything triggers stories in her head with a mind that is always switched on.
And once she has an idea, she can’t wait to get working. But the final product doesn’t resemble the initial picture. She explains that what she can’t see or hear is exactly what gets her imagination going.
Everyday objects, stories, especially folklore of Japanese origin, stimulates her as well as the people close to her, especially he granddaughter Ella, has dominated her work.
With two daughters, both living in London, she has time to work while keeping those who live afar, close in her imaginary world.
While drawing still informs her work, the needle and thread is her alphabet. Clothes and in this exhibition, the dresses her daughters wore when they were small, and now her granddaughter, are all featured in different ways.
The Threads that Bind 3
Drawing and sewing form her language – like a pen is to the writer, each stitch or line she creates is her alphabet. For the works on display, she used mainly pencil and pastel combined with stitching as her media.
Threads, in different cultures, represent many different things: protection, repair, mending, hope and destiny, she says.
“I’m very drawn to cultural customs. Semamori for example is a Japanese custom which means ‘back protection’. Mothers handstitched intricate patterns on the back of their children’s kimonos to protect them from harm. Often these embroideries have long threads hanging from them to assist good spirits to prevent children from falling.
“Red thread knots would also be sewn on cloth for soldiers going to war. These were worn as sashes under the uniforms to protect soldiers and give mothers and wives hope for their safe return.”
All of this informs her work, and is threaded through her stories, which all manifest in different ways to shape different tales and adventures for others. For her it is all therapeutic as she works alone while shaping her stories visually and solving problems she grapples with.
The Wolf Bride – Embroidery on silk organza (002)
She could go on for days and often has to stop herself, stand back, and take a look from afar.
She is the woman who finds a box with old and odd pieces of fabric, collars or swatches which will all form part of her language in yet another work in the future.
Ansa also turns her enemies into friends and especially the animals in her work are placed in unexpected settings to change who and what they traditionally represent.
It is a world of fantasy and make-believe but in this artist’s mind, it’s a world she can manipulate and make her own.
“The warmth and contemplation of drawing and stitching move me across places and vast timelines. They are the nostalgic markings of movement between past and present. Like human emotions, strings and lines can entangle allowing viewers to imagine stories behind them”.
When walking through the exhibition, it takes you into another world, one where your narrative features. Clothes, colour and threads form a part of most of our lives, so the connections are varied depending on who you are and why something catches your eye.
Not only are Ansa Clacey’s creations unusual, but also exciting and stimulating as they fire the imagination. Do not let the opportunity to view this rare collection pass you by.
The Association of Arts Pretoria is currently exhibiting works by renowned local artist Lynette ten Krooden under the collective title Mirari, which is the Latin for ‘to wonder at’; admire; miracle.Through French and later English, the word mirage also came into being. It perfectly captures the artist and her work, as she tells DIANE DE BEER:
Lynette is herself a work of art. Everything becomes her canvas.The artist with her miracle rock shard.
If you spot glittering gold leaf somewhere on a table, chair or even the snacks at an arts event, it’s probably a sign that artist Lynette ten Krooden’s in the room.
“It’s her involvement with the Middle East many years ago that awakened it,” notes her close friend and fellow artist Margaret Gradwell-Truter, who divulges that the two of them are celebrating her first exhibition at the Association 40 years ago and now again. “As fellow artist, I (nervously) opened the exhibition at that time.”
It was wonderful to listen to her speech and to have her reveal so much about her friend, always with the emphasis on her art.
Ancient Travel Story.
About Lynette’s trademark gold leaf she says that at the time it wasn’t something that was widely used in the art world. She even recalls some of the local art academics being quite scathing about the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt because of his use of gold leaf. Today his work records some of the highest prices paid for art and especially his trademark gold leaf receives high praise. In similar vein, another gold leaf practitioner, Alexis Preller, was also not rated. Today he is revered, she says, as we can all attest to.
Not that Lynette paid much attention. If you hear her speak about her work and where her inspiration lies, it’s always the landscape. “She viewed the universe from space, or flew across the desert or travelled through it with the Bedouins, or she found herself in awe of age-old mountains, rocks and fossils. But she doesn’t repeat what she has seen, she gives her audience the experience of wonderment which she experiences – she does it through a rich tapestry of forms and marks richly woven to form a whole,” explained Margaret.
“Lynette has used gold leaf as an integral part of the landscape that inspires her.” And that especially was again visible in this current exhibition.
PinnaclePinnacle in the Clouds.
Margaret embroiders: “She has unwaveringly used it as a medium for many years and has been able to master it, not as a decorative element but as a metaphor for the mirage, the mirari (miracle), that she has profoundly chased and captured, thereby enabling us, the spectator, to also wonder at the mirari.”
From her earliest days, she notes, Lynette was interested in the mysteries of the universe. The invisible – such as the effect of light on the earth – the glittering horizon, mist, sand, rocks and water. “This place that is a sanctuary for the wordless artist.”
Reenboogrots (Rainbow Rock)
And when Lynette talks unthinkingly about gold leaf, she tells how she is constantly picking up and gathering flecks of what might have fallen from something she is working on and using it again and again. And anyone who has ever picked up (or tried to handle) a sheath of gold leaf will know that it disintegrates in front of your eyes as if an invisible hand has reached out.
And still all these years later as her friend underlines, Lynette is filled with wonderment. “There’s a lifetime of art in my bones,” responds the artist. And even the fabric she wears reflects her love of what she creates.
Reisverhale – Storm on French Linen.
When she talks of her travels, she thinks of small children sitting on the sand and instinctively drawing, making pictures, capturing their world. That’s what she does. With her physical reality often a hindrance, she has found ways to work, to deal with what life gives her and to escape into the mysteries she is always exploring. “It never stops,” she says – and neither will she. “I lost my heart to the creative process. It’s good for my heart.”
Stand in front of one of her paintings and it immediately opens up a new world. Even if you’re just drawn by the colour, that in itself is a whole world that she embraces. For her, there’s a childlike excitement when she creates a new work. With this exhibition it was also returning to old ways and techniques that brought fresh meaning. As an artist she is intent on always moving forwards, somewhere new, challenging the world and everything around her.
And in the process, she passes on that depth of feeling to those of us looking on hoping to discover more . Her miracle becomes ours. For her it is simply a curiosity and wonder that started many years ago which has become the eternal play on her changing canvasses.
De Beer Necessities 