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Take me to the river
On the last day of fest, just a day or two before I (and I suspect most of us) have to return to selling our dreams in return for lucre and security, I go see Through Blue.I knew it would be melancholy, I knew it ended on that most heartbreaking Johannes Kerkorrel song about Hillbrow, but I figured that’s ok, I would embrace the sadness. Stare straight into the heart of the abyss. I was ...
Festival finds and failures
As the last day draws ever nearer, a measure of reflection is in order on the wins and woes of the past 10 days.Having just seen Lucy Kruger singing, I think there's very little she can't do. And do well. It was her last music show so you'll have to catch her elsewhere. (Also, the bassist and drummer were remarkably fabulous.) Her Mother Milk choreography was fantastic. Her performance in ...
Fundamental theatre
A pervasive atmosphere of violence in society prevents us from engaging with each other as fellow human beings. Instead, constantly on guard with our desire to protect ourselves, our immediate family and property, we retreat into what is familiar, colouring ‘the other’ with our own – often unacknowledged – prejudices.Race and religion are the dominant markers of ‘the other’, and ...
FestForward Podcast: 5 July 2012
Want to find out about comedy and drama? Well listen to today's podcast for more information on the solo performance Mother to Mother and on the duo performance Boet 'n Swaer. FestForward: keeping you ahead of the Fest! [audio:http://www.nationalartsfestival.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/FestForward12_05-07.mp3|titles=FestForward Podcast: 5 July 2012]
Hol leaves you breathless
On a good day I can run 11k’s an hour for about 20 minutes. 30 at a push. I consider myself reasonably fit and healthy, but looking at Nicola Hanekom going full speed for an hour made me feel like a chain-smoking alcoholic desk jockey.Not that her legs run full speed for the entire hour, although she ‘laat wikkel daai bene’ for much of the show, being that she performs the entire piece ...
No maybes about …Miskien
“What is all the fuss about?” I wondered during the first quarter of Ovation-Award winning play Miskien.It seemed to be a middle-of-the-road play about two young guys living rather banal lives. Sex, beer and the boring office hours in-between appeared to be the theme, with an odd little monologue of desperation from Gideon Lombard thrown in now and again.Then, about half-way in, we ...
Race aces it
In frame one, Franklin says to Charlie Brown: “I like being black.”Charlie says “good”, and in frame two replies: “I like being white.”Franklin’s response, in the final frame: “You racist.”I saw the Peanuts cartoon recently and it perfectly encapsulates the questions that emerge in Race, which opened on the Main last night.Is being born white in itself a racist ...
Rats! Lionel Newton is a Star!
I love children. But. I don’t love them when they are part of the audience watching adult theatre. But there’s another But. I loved the fact that the toddler in the audience at Rats! understood exactly what Lionel Newton was saying.The child didn’t understand the text, of course, which was Browning and Beckett and local writer Nick Warren but it (sorry, in the dark I couldn’t discern ...
Dead performance by cast of Autopsy
Autopsy was deadly.The actors, and consequently the show, lacked the energy necessary to carry the performance.This of course can be attributed to first night jitters or the lack of audience – and the audience that was present were themselves dead (tired from the long drive in, bored, or puzzling over the inconsistencies?). But regardless of the justification, the dead nature of the ...
A red flag to a bullhorn
Passion, without the application of knowledge, is dangerous, and possibly debilitating. Return of the Red Flag reminded me on an anecdote I’ve heard UWC Rector Brian O’Connell tell: a soccer player passionately committed to fitness performs endless repetitions of jumping and squatting, without realizing that the exercise he thinks is doing him good will rapidly wreck his knees and leave him ...
