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Buffet of strong acting chops and funny bones
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June 23, 2009
By Atiyyah Khan, Zane Henry and Diane de Beer
With so much on offer, the National Arts Festival is essentially a series of festivals within a festival. Whether you are a first-time festino, or a frost-bitten regular, here are Tonight's tips for what to see in the halls
and theatres ...
Main
There are many different strands - authors, personal narratives with Africa as a force, poetry as well as the vast landscape of this country - running through this year's theatre productions on the main stage. Just a handful (10 productions in fact) but it's an excitingly strong programme.
Fred Khumalo, Ben Okri and Samuel Beckett are three writers whose work has been adapted for the stage. James Ngcobo joins forces with Khumalo by adapting his autobiographical Touch My Blood: The Early Years for the stage. It's the story of a young man growing up in Hammarsdale (outside Durban) in the terrifyingly strange times of the 1980s. "It's a huge ask," says the director, whose biggest challenge is to decide what stays and what goes. "You can't tell the whole story but you want to capture the heart."
In the dextrous hands of Helen Iskander and James Cunningham, Okri's Famished Road promises to be an extraordinary journey. This dynamic duo know how to work with magic realism and, set in an African context, they will navigate this continent with insight. It's the story of a spirit child born into the harsh realities of an African family. Instead of returning to his spiritual world, he decides to bring relief to the battered woman who is his mother on earth.
Presented by Dublin's Gare St Lazare Players, who are considered experts on dramatising Beckett's work, their adaptation of his novella First Love is performed by Conor Lovett who is regarded as the greatest living Beckett interpreter. The protagonist is a lonely young man who was kicked out of his home when his father died.
He lived on a park bench until he moved in with a sex worker whom he claims to love. Those familiar with Beckett will expect bleakness combined with flashes of his dark humour.
Poetry moves centre stage with Young Artist Award winner for Drama Ntshieng Mokgoro's The Olive Tree. Through story, poetry and song she incorporates a true South African narrative with emphasis on ritual and culture. From a different continent but in similar style, British performance poet Lemn Sissay pitches a personal drama as he tells of a young boy searching for the mother who abandoned him at birth. Africa is the key to the awful secret of his past.
The secret so often lies in the script and both I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright and Wit by Margaret Edson have won Pulitzer Prizes. Jeremy Crutchley directed by Janice Honeyman sweetly slips into the shoes of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, a German transvestite which gives the talented Mr Crutchley a chance to pull out all the acting stops.
Wit, which many might have seen starring Emma Thomson, is also a vehicle for actors, allowing them to shine. KwaZulu-Natal's KickStart Theatre Company with Clare Mortimer, Alison Cassels and Ralph Lawson are directed by Steven Stead.
With the spotlight on acting Mwenya Kabwe, last seen in a luminous performance in Yellowman, stars in Do You Know Billie Holiday? directed by Nigel Vermaas. The story of Holiday's unlikely friendship with a warder while she was serving a drug charge in an institution for a year, it's a mix of story and song but the reason not to miss this will be the extraordinary Kabwe's performance.
Going local, Mike van Graan's Iago's Last Dance deals with jealousy while starring HIV and Aids as the main culprit that takes everyone on a disastrous dance. Trust Van Graan to home in on yet another of this country's foibles: not dealing with its deadliest disease in any manner or form.
Last but not least, Fatima Dike's The Return explores the coming home of ex-cadre Bantu Somdaka who has lived in the US for 18 years married to an African American wife. It's all about forging ways to blend the old with the new, the past with the future. - Diane de Beer
Fringe
It's hard to write a guide to the Fringe at the National Arts Festival because the only way to really unearth its delights is to dive headlong into it. Sure, the Main Programme has all the big names and marketing glitz, but the Festival's heart pumps in the Fringe.
This is where you wander into a freezing, half-empty garage with torturous seating only to be transported by the unexpected beauty of an unknown theatre gem.
Often the companies producing the shows have very little money and are performing for the love of theatre at their own financial risk.
So go for it. Book a ticket for a show you've never heard of. You may just be amazed.
Cats and Dogs features the venerable Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom as both writer and director.
It tells the behind-the-scenes story of a heist and looks at the different people affected by it.
The Ellenbogen dynasty's Theatre for Africa presents Love Song for Livingstone, with Luke Ellenbogen directing and Elizabeth Ellenbogen co-starring.
Mantolo - The Tenth Step garnered fervent reviews when it ran in Joburg and Grahamstown audiences will be able to see why. The play tells the true story of Sibusiso Senele Masuku and is directed and co-written by Audrey Sekhabi.
Ncamisa! The Women is written and directed by Peter Hayes and performed by Pam Ngwabeni. Sexual politics are brought to the fore when lesbianism finds a home in Khayelitsha.
The poignant and funny Original Skin tells the story of a woman's awakening political consciousness across a number of decades. Vanessa Cooke and Robert Colman are the driving forces.
Pictures of You was the sleeper hit at last year's Festival and will doubtlessly continue its success. Be sure to book well ahead of time for this surreal, affecting play utilising masks and puppets.
Quack is produced by the same team behind Pictures of You and is the latest mind-bending treat they have to offer. Part fantasy, part, horror, all magic, the play tells the story of a shamanistic drifter.
Ballistic spoken-word poet Ewok's show was a personal highlight last year and his follow-up is a must-see. Spitfire: Return of the Red Eye takes on contemporary society with razor-edged poetry.
Tsafenda/Living in Strange Lands is a docu-drama that ebbs and flows with verve and emotion. It is directed by Lynne Maree and written by Anton Krueger.
Cape Town's Mechanicals have found an adoring audience back home with their superb productions of modern classics. Christopher Weare directs Scott Sparrow and Nick Pauling in Edward Albee's harrowing The Zoo Story. - Zane Henry
Comedy
Comedy gets considerable attention at this year's Festival in that it features for the first time on the main festival programme. The Fringe comedy programme consists of over 50 different types of shows to choose from including stand-up, dark comedies, soccer mania, magic, mystery and theatre.
International comic Jimeoin heads up the main programme in Jimeoin On Ice.
Born in Belfast, but currently living in Australia, Jimeoin has performed at festivals across the world, and is known for his brilliant rapport with his audiences and wit.
He is supported by local comedian Dave Levinsohn.
The fringe programme consists of many one-man shows by well known local stand-up comedians. David Newton features prominently with one-man shows Laugh and Politically Incorrect.
He also directs Dekaf, a production about the new generation of black South Africans.
Stuart Taylor explains the joys of becoming a husband and the role of men in Learner Husband. Brent Palmer takes on the current credit crisis in a South African context in Credit Crunch. Ventriloquist Conrad Koch presents his new show, Koch Up! With a range of dummies including Julius Malema. The show is directed by Heinrick Reisenhofer who also directs Learner Husband.
Ava Vidal ( UK comedienne who took Edinburgh by storm last year) discusses changes in the world post-Obama in Remember, Remember 4th of November.
Mark Sampson Feels Funny, which was the highest grossing comedy show of 2008, return this year with comic observations of everyday life. Comedian and actor Rob Van Vuuren, who dominated 2008's festival, returns this year in his one-man show Rob Van Vuuren is Rob Van Wurin and directs Rumpsteak which features Gaeten Schmid behind the scenes in a French restaurant.
Soccer fever rages on in Mike van Graan's latest instalment Bafana Republic 3: Penalty Shootout, in time for 2010 madness. Afrika: Mama Yo! satirises pitches for entertainment as the World Cup approaches.
There are also second shows from those brave enough to return to the festival. Butlers and Botox is the follow-up to Butlers and Brandy, the hugely popular show where the audience becomes part of solving the murder- mystery. Monkey Nuts is the latest creation from the team of Mathew Ribnick and Geraldine Naidoo who presented Chilli Boy and Hoot previously. Tokoloshe Come Again is the brand new show from those two crazy boys, Jacobs Van Heerden and Liam Magner who featured in the hilarious and hugely popular Tokoloshe Come and Go.
There is also plenty for those attuned to the slightly left of centre side. Cracks is a dark comedy revolving around hippie drug culture and the porn industry of the 1970s.
There is also Milton Shorr's The Game, which stars comedian and actor Brendan Murray, and invites audiences to come without giving any information away except "Come watch. We know what we are doing."
Anton Krueger, who also has films and other theatrical productions screening at the festival, presents In the Blue Beaker, a dark post-punk comedy
Madam, Zimbabwe's Not Funny is a tongue-in-cheek politically incorrect look at society.
The world of sexual politics and how women have changed over time is explored in The School of Whoredom.
Magic features in Mysterious Ways with magician Ran'D Shine, and with Aldo Brincat in My Father's Hat.
Stuart Lightbody known for his sleight of hand card tricks and illusion artist Bryan Miles trick audiences in Sleight of Mind.
Finally, the festival also features Live & Kicking Late Night Comedy at the Bowling Club. Every night three local and international comedians from the Fringe programme will perform, live and uncensored. (See CUE for daily line-ups.) - Atiyyah Khan
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