Category: Theatre

Have Suitcase, Will Travel

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The Suitcase6
Siyabonga Thwala, Desmond Dube and John Lata

Pictures: Brett Rubin

Diane de Beer

Sitting in the rehearsal room at Joburg’s Market Theatre complex where the cast of the latest revision of The Suitcase is busy rehearsing, it is easy to see why this is such an impactful piece of writing.

Add to that the evocative music (arranged by Bheki Khoza) that James Ngcobo has incorporated into the fabric of the story, it catches your heart from the start.

This was the play that first brought actor James Ngcobo’s directorial skills to everyone’s attention.

Adapted from Es’kia Mphahlele’ s short story by Ngcobo, it is set in the 1950s in Sophiatown (here it has been moved to Durban). The Suitcase is a haunting love story of a couple who try to pursue their dreams with nothing more than each other yet they believe that will carry them through. Set in the bitter apartheid years, it is the tale of countless couples who try to make a simple living in extraordinarily harsh times. Everywhere they turned, doors closed without even a glimmer of hope except perhaps that chance of a lifetime which might change their lives.

It is also a universal and timeless story which can be set anywhere, at any time.

Having watched it in all its reincarnations, I thought I would be immune to the sadness that gently yet determinedly envelops you but, as Ngcobo always points out, it is a love story before anything else, and it has a devastating yet mesmerising effect.

The Suitcase5
James Ngcobo and Siyabongo Thwala.

The pressures of the city, unemployment and poverty strip away the husband`s self-esteem and he starts to lose his moral compass. He is so desperate to provide for his pregnant wife that he steals a suitcase left on a bus.

This third reincarnation has come about because  of a 5-week tour of Northern England (see schedules below). For the artistic director of The Market who was invited to bring this piece, it is about honouring this time by reinterpreting  The Suitcase and in that way, to keep shining those classics for a contemporary world.

If one sometimes wonders why a stage production works, The Suitcase is ample proof that it helps when all the elements come together so emphatically.

From the poetic script which remains true to the original text and captures the haunting powers of a short story to an ensemble cast that work so sweetly together like a tightly knit family.

The cast includes original members Siyabonga Thwala as the husband Timi and John Lata, while Desmond Dube as the storyteller and other characaters and Masasa Mbangeni as the wife Namhla, joins the play.

Solo guitarist Bheki Khosa accompanies three singers – Nomfundo Dlamini-Sambo, Gugu Shezi  and Nokukhanya Dlamini.

The way it is told and performed is all about this country. It’s in the music, the gestures, the sound effects, the movement and the classic storytelling that pulls you right into the eye of the storm as the characters emerge painfully from their dreams.

It’s a beautiful piece of theatre to travel and represent this country as it incorporates so much of our own storytelling yet it is a universal story and with a cast and performers that just in rehearsals (and not quite on their game yet) had me enthralled. I am so proud that this team will be representing us in the world.

Ngcobo is intent on furthering The Market brand and understands the benefits of reaching out and forming international partnerships, to exchange the riches particular to the different countries.

For him it has always been about outside exposure, introducing and involving the young to also learn from these international adventures and to return to plough back. He has wanted to re-position the brand and has worked hard to be brave and to try new content for their space. “Post 94 we started experiencing a new and changing country which meant that as curators we had to exhibit the change in how we programme and that is exactly what we have done, to cast our net wide and not only be a theatre that is driven by a political narrative but to find a way that sees us operating in a continental and universal space,” he says.

In a previous review I had remarked that The Suitcase is pure theatre. “Hopefully it tours both nationally and internationally.”

And that blissfully (with a previous tour to Scandanavia) has come to pass.

Here are the British schedules which will be followed by a home run at The Market from 20 October to 26 November:

Hull: Friday 1 September – Saturday 9 September at Hull Truck; Newcastle: Tuesday 12 September – Saturday 16 September at Northern Stage; Derby : Tuesday 19 September –Saturday 23 September at Derby Theatre; Lancaster: Tuesday 26 September – Saturday 30 September at Lancaster Dukes; Liverpool: Tuesday 03 October – Saturday 07 October at Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse.

Freud and CS Lewis tackle Religion – and more – on stage at Theatre on the Square

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freudpic3
Graham Hopkins, Alan Swerdlow and Antony Coleman

 

Diane de Beer

Throw the names of actors Graham Hopkins and Antony Coleman into a hat and I pay attention.

There are also the play (Freud’s Last Session) and the director, Alan Swerdlow, that add weight. There’s no way the description “cerebral play with warmth” does this project justice though, it is one of those seasons you will have to take a chance on.

At worst you will have the acting talents of these two extraordinary actors – each in their own right. They have in fact never worked together on stage, only in TV’s Scandal, and Coleman remembers that they were fighting a court case in that particular session while Hopkins recalls the reams and reams of dialogue he had to memorise. “I had to devise a special method of pictograms to get it all down,” he says.

Freud’s Last Session which opens on Tuesday (August 22) at the Auto and General Theatre on the Square in Sandton, running until September 14, was imagined by Marc St Germain following the premise of a meeting between  legendary psychotherapist Dr. Sigmund Freud (Hopkins)  and the rising Oxford don C.S. Lewis (Coleman). He tellingly sets this particular tête–à–tête in London on the eve of World War 2.

The one is famous for his views on sex, the other for his religious beliefs (and the Narnia books, some of his life story captured in the play/film Shadowlands), and this will be much more than talking heads – and with these three artists involved, you’d better believe it.

As these two opinionated men argue about the existence of God, whether the belief in God is merely a childish fantasy, or a crucial element of leading a meaningful life, the BBC keeps interrupting with the latest bulletins on the impending war.

With the possibility of a war looming in the background and foremost in their minds, they might start out with religion, the conflict between science and religion, but their conversation veers to their parents, music, meaning of Hitler – and even the entertainment value of flatulence! It would have to have all that to keep us listening I suspect.

The whole affair is of course heightened because of the Hitler’s presence heavy on the horison, Freud being an 83-year-old Jewish refugee from Vienna and Lewis, a 40-year-old World War 1 veteran, both with their own set of worries.

For both actors, finding their particular persona was top of the agenda and Hopkins notes that there’s not much live footage on Freud, while for Coleman there’s obviously much more. But neither of these two actors would be inclined to go for mimicry, it’s simply finding a truth to the men they’re portraying. “It’s so skilfully written,” explains Hopkins, that their characters are revealed in the conversation.

“It’s what theatre does best,” says Swerdlow as he talks about the actors and the way they give life to the people they play. And in this case, it will be part of the enjoyment of the piece – to watch these two skillful artists at work on the same stage – and playing great men, so often larger than life.

For Hopkins the play deals with that age-old question of why we’re here? “It’s something all of us ask at some stage,” he says and there will be both squabbles and serious, thought-provoking debate.

At the time of our chat, the actors were enjoying their first outing together, both thrilled that they have a rapport with much laughter ensuing during rehearsals. Swerdlow is a director who allows his actors to find their way, especially with two as stage savvy as Hopkins and Coleman. While he worries about the play finding its people, he knows when it does, the audiences will stream in and discover the delights of this rich work.

This is the kind of theatre we don’t get to see that often; it’s quite wordy, its about topics that might blow a few minds, and many managements in these tough times aren’t able to take the risk.

Once in a while like in this instance, Daphne Kuhn allows herself this leap of faith. In the end, to get you to go and to pay attention (and win New York theatre awards), Freud’s Last Sessions has to be entertaining.

This trio (Swerdlow and his actors) are determined to showcase the best and prove a point.

 

Nataniël Celebrates 30 Years on Stage

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By Diane de Beer

Nataniël celebrates three decades on stage with 30 years, 90 minutes running from Friday August 24 until Sunday September 24 at Theatre of Marcellus, Emperors Palace. He will be joined by Charl du Plessis (piano), Juan Oosthuizen (guitar), Werner Spies (bass), Hugo Radyn (drums), Dihan Slabbert (vocals), and Nicolaas Swart (vocals).The show starts at 8pm from Thursdays to Saturdays, and at 3pm on Sundays. No children under the age of 15 will be permitted.  Fans can also purchase a limited-edition luxury souvenir programme at the show.

Nataniel show pic
30 years, 90 minutes

Even in those early years it was clear that this would never be a problem. Apart from being a mover with a mission, he has always been a solo creative soul that could slip easily between genres, conjure up creative endeavours and, more than anything to keep himself entertained, come up with something completely different and new at the snap of a finger.

That is what keeps so many intrigued. I was always amazed at critics who complained that his shows were always about telling stories followed by songs. That has always just been the packaging for him but once you creep inside that head, nothing stands still and there’s no time for stagnation. The framework might appear the same, but everything inside has been turned upside down and inside out.

For Nataniël it has always been about change, surprising his audience and keeping them entertained. And that is also how he has gone about planning his 30-year celebration. He wants to make some noise for his audience.

His annual show at Emperors (a stripped-down version played in Cape Town at the beginning of the year) 30 Years, 90 Minutes which opens on August 24, will be a display of his life on stage. Not that he thinks people remember things like that. Or that anything of that nature lasts.

Yet he has very loyal fans and he relishes a sense of occasion. Everyone knows about his obsession for example with Christmas and how he turns this into a magical spectacle for himself and those close to him. A similar principle applies

“My career is 30 years old, I’m not dying,” he says about the celebrations. And that is why he will focus on longevity rather than legendary status. “This will be the mother of all celebrations!” That’s all he basically says about the show. In typical Nataniël fashion, he doesn’t reveal too much.

Take him by his word though and get ready to party. Nataniël is serious about the secrecy in which he shrouds his shows. As a journalist, he gives you enough to do a story and there is something of what he will put on stage but on opening night, when you see what he has created, it’s as much a revelation as if you hadn’t been told anything.

That’s his thing, his magic trick. It is all about the unexpected, the way he tells stories, even his song choices and how he performs them. How will they be arranged, musically performed and how will they fit into a show. There’s nothing left to chance for this perfectionist performer.

He wants to celebrate those who performed with him in the past as well as unveil some of who he is for those who perform with him now and weren’t born then. That’s just the way his mind meanders. “It’s about looking ahead,”he says “What will the new chapter look like?”

Rehearsals, when the whole show comes together, that’s some of his happiest moments. That’s what he wants to show. “It opens like a rehearsal,” he says. “I want the audience to know about the process.” He describes the show as a “night of the forgotten”, stories and shows as he went in search of archive material, that he had forgotten about. “Everything that appears on stage has been on stage before – all my favourite elements of the past 30 years.” It even means re-staging some of his biggest flop moments

Those who follow his career will need little encouragement. They know they have a formidable artist in their midst, someone extraordinarily special, who on a night will blow their mind … perhaps their world!

Nataniel CD cover
Packaging is the appeal

But that’s only half of it. Already part of the celebrations, Nataniël also released a celebratory CD this year, One Day In A Castle. “I like that booklet packaging,” he says about his decision to produce it in CD format. He describes this one as one of the most honest productions he has done. “I wasn’t doing it for airtime, didn’t want it to sound plastic-y, wanted lush arrangements and rich sounds,” he says. He’s achieved all that!

And then there’s the book. He cleverly decided to tell his story with visuals – his costumes no less. That’s how he views his world. When he does a show, or thinks up his next story, it is to the costumes he turns first. It’s all about the look, the pictures he will present and how he shows the world his life.

That’s what this costume book represents – the story of his stage shows and, if you listened carefully through the years, his life. But that’s not all. The way he orchestrates his world is a lesson for those trying to forge a career.

Because he is always doing three things at a time, he tends to intertwine, pull those strands together that can work many streams and explore everything in different ways. His last TV show, shot in an old chateau just outside Nantes, also benefited from his extravagant costumes. With his brother Erik, the photographer of these costume pictures, also part of the production team and co-presenter with Nataniël on his Nantes TV series, these costume sessions would conclude each episode while also presenting the chance to capture the images for his book and posterity.

Because of the way his imagination runs wild, each shoot turned into a production itself. Not all the costumes were shot in the charming French countryside and sometimes it would mean building the fantasy he hoped would best tell the tale on his return back home. “We built sets which exploded into a circus in a forest,” he notes. But they also had to recreate some of the sets from previous shows. It’s the kind of detail his precision demands.

His practical side also slips into the equation though. Even if he wants this to be the most exquisite book in the world, he doesn’t want a coffee table book that gathers dust. It must be affordable and something that people will dip into with delight.

Nataniel in costume
Nataniël’s work of art

He has always been clear about his costumes: “It can’t go on stage if it isn’t a work of art,” he says simply.

For him, the costumes are the best representation of his life. “It is the only thing I collect,” he says, which for this super compulsive shopper (generous to a fault, so usually for others) is some confession.

In the end, looking back, he’s shocked. “I have been making a career for 30 years living in obscurity. And I’m not even a politician,” he claims.

And he does giggle when he finds himself in the middle of a shoot, a male in a tutu surrounded by a clutch of colourful chairs! Outside of context, he knows this is ridiculous. But that is his life and that’s why people listen to every word and follow each step he takes.

It is his extraordinary mind, the way he draws the curtain on the way he thinks, embraces the world and invites them to share his fantastical vision.

Van Graan’s State Fracture Brutally Brilliant

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Diane de Beer reviews Mike van Graan’s State of the Nation from a few year’s back but if you’re at the 2018 KKNK, witness the coming together of three artists in away that will blow your mind:

 

 

PLAYWRIGHT: Mike van Graan
DIRECTOR: Rob van Vuuren
PERFORMER: Daniel Mpilo Richards
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Daniel Mpilo Richards in State Fracture

The stars have aligned for these three artists, who each in turn contributes to a product that works from start to finish – brutally and brilliantly.

In these unprecedented times in the world, that’s what we need. There’s been enough denial and dismissal of what’s happening in this country because of disappointment, disbelief and disenchantment.

But enough already is what Van Graan seems to say and with all his skills and savvy, he has found the perfect form and performer to speak his mind. When you look at the theatrical landscape, audiences want escape and not many want to be faced with the reality of their daily lives. But on our current political death ride, it’s as if people have had enough of heads in the sand, being polite and are desperately seeking for someone to take the beast by the scruff of the neck

That individual is Van Graan. He has always been a political animal, an activist, someone who has fought for his beliefs and written extensively on everything he sees especially in the arts where hard news was seldom – if never – covered. He has never shied away from being the lone loud voice out there.

That’s why his script is so finely crafted. This is copy he has been writing for years. He knows what he wants to say, has all the hard facts at his fingertips which allowed him to up the ante and put together a solo show that’s as delicious to watch as it is disheartening.

That’s the point though. You can be entertained with quality while also digesting the facts and confronting the issues. Struggle theatre might not always pull in those audiences, but when it is done well, it hits all the marks. Who cannot be passionate when it is about the thing you care about most – freedom.

Add Richards with the insightful guiding hand of Van Vuuren and it’s lift-off. They already proved their theatre smarts in Show Me the Curry but this isn’t just a formula that’s repeated ad nauseum. Each sketch is finely crafted, a mini show of its own, written in a different style allowing the performer the freedom to play around.

Because Van Graan is so adept with words and its theatrical application, he can take a chicken sketch and have you laugh out loud simply for the many phrases he can conjure up to suit the subject; but then he infuses every phrase with punch; and Richard in full physical performance mode, cackles through it hilariously.

It’s never just fun and games and that’s why this searing South African show even as it highlights the horror in blazing colour, also leaves us with hope.

Check Van Graan’s mantra (below) which captures everything he stands for in the world and as Richards sinks his teeth into this stirring soliloquy, you can hear a pin drop. From chicken coop to stirring soapbox, it’s a wild and traumatic ride.

It’s truly the stuff of theatre. It might tear at your gut, but it holds your attention, has your mind racing, asking questions, digesting issues and finally, ready and armed to fight the good fight.

 

The Patriot 
by Mike van Graan

 

I am not a patriot
For pointing out naked emperors
For not joining the chorus of praise singers
For allegiance to country, not party
I am anti-transformation
For still sprouting non-racist mantra
For resisting cadre deployment
Choosing delivery not patronage
I am a sellout
For donating my poetry to resistance
For refusing to live in denial
For declining thirty pieces of silver
I am an ultra-leftist
For supporting human rights in Zimbabwe
For not being a millionaire socialist
For saying what others but think
I am a racist
For breaking the silence with a whisper
For preferring thought to propaganda
For standing up amidst the prostrate
For repeated conspiracy with the questions what, how, why
I am a white monopoly capitalist
For marching against corruption
For not looting the people’s purse
Choosing principle above expedience
I am a counter-revolutionary
An enemy of the people
An agent of imperialism
An apartheid spy
A traitor
For not martyring my mind
For not holding my tongue
For not sacrificing my soul
I have been here before
But then as a communist
Marxist
Terrorist
Labels they come and labels they go
Hard on the footsteps of those
Who defend new privilege with old morality
Who appropriate history for contemporary pillaging
Who now crucify the people on their electoral crosses
I have been here before and I shall be here again
For as long as the poor – like Truth – are with us

 

 

Explosive emotions at play in Chasing Chairs

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Chasing Chairs pic
Theo Landey and Chi Mhende

By DIANE DE BEER

 

CHASING CHAIRS
Authors: Sue Pam-Grant and DJ Grant
Lighting Design: Michael Maxwell
Director, Set and Costume Design: Sue Pam-GrantC
Cast: Chi Mhende, Theo Landey
Venue: Barney Simon @The Market Theatre
Show times: Tuesdays to Saturdays @ 8.15pm and Sunday @3.15pm
Dates: Until August 6

 

Sue-Pam Grant is one of those artists who constantly changes colours in the way she tells her stories and presents her work, whether in her paintings, artworks or on stage. That’s what makes her so intriguing.

It’s not only the stories she tells, it’s the way she tells them that becomes an artwork and with her latest version of Chasing Chairs (presented in 2002 at Sandton’s Theatre on the Square), it takes you back to one of her earliest works, Take the Floor where the communication was done through movement not words – most hilariously, yet still hitting all the message marks.

With this current version of Chasing Chairs, Pam -Grant has again got stuck into all the elements available to her as a multi-disciplinary artist. The set is like a painting, an empty white space, obviously a room, but with memory points that are used throughout the performance. There’s a window looking out with wallpaper and views, a changing panorama reflecting the worlds of the two characters, husband and wife, Simon (Landey) and Cat (Mhende), who are living a life and refiguring a relationship minute by minute.

There’s a lot going on and many different places you can lose yourself as you immerse your mind and soul in this transforming tableau.

chasing-chairs4.pngIf you’re a visual person, it’s a feast, from Cat’s outfit and headgear, the style and the colour, to the miniature and normal-sized chair doing a balancing act throughout or the sea change of the wallpaper around the window, a portal to the outside world and an emotional touchpoint for the viewer.

There’s also the dance and the music, Pam-Grant’s choice of text as the husband-and-wife team move in and out of step in a way that reflects their inner worlds, which all keep humming along quite deliciously.

It’s flighty yet furious with serious undertones, as those in relationships will recognise from the daily doggedness of matching two minds that can hopefully meet.

One’s obsession is another’s passion, and chasing chairs upsets the routine that a more rigid mind requires when reaching for stability that won’t rock his world, while the other embraces the chaos of constant change at a pace that keeps her heart racing.

Landey’s boyish demeanour suits the part as he and perfect partner in crime Mhende revel in the dance that explores their daily lives, their longings and explorations of a couple deeply in love yet battling to find an equilibrium that holds that delicate balance we all hope to achieve and then hold on to.

It’s fun to watch while grasping the intricacies of lives in search of a way to both breathe and blend while not bending to breaking point.

It was only in the last gasp that the wistfulness and whimsy of the performance and the text, which lightened what could have been a deeply distressing experience, was displaced with text that moved from shooting stars to a preciousness that jolts us into a reality that we already understood when explored with a playfulness that was joyous to watch.

Pam-Grant is an artist that keeps evolving and exploring the boundaries while unravelling her life in a way that is universal and touches ours deeply. Chasing Chairs is a love story that catches at the heart, elicits a smile throughout and underlines that while tough, fighting for that sentimental soul mate will encourage the flowers to bloom in explosive colour.

*It was sadly a short run, but watch out if it plays anywhere else.