I need to add Jon Keevy to the angel list after he rigged, focused, designed, plotted and taught me the lighting for Good Will Acting yesterday. He has transformed the space, the show and the ambience, and he guffawed a couple of times during the run through.
Jon Keevy is one of my favourite TheatreSports players, theatre makers and all round talented clever guy theatrically. Thank you Jon.
Godfrey Johnson is doing a short two week run of his Brel show at the Kalk Bay Theatre and I went along last night even though I have seen it before and reviewed it here. In this venue the show is stronger, harder and somehow more intense, hardly giving the audience time or space to breathe. I think it has to do with the brilliant lighting that Jon Keevy made as well as the stillness of Godfrey in his chair for the whole thing. Brilliant. If You Go Away has never been done better and Next, The Lockman and some of the other lesser known songs are genius. I couldn’t stay for the second half, where Godfrey performs requests that members of the audience choose and pay for and the money goes to the Darling Trust (what a brilliant idea), I had a headache from hell that I couldn’t get rid of. The message to all who haven’t seen this show is, go. This is Brel with a capital B. And to those who have; it’s worth seeing again in this space. It’s not a laugh a second journey. It is intense, harrowing, sentimental, crazy, potent, poetic, demented and magnificent.
I did a triple feature of plays last night, to kick-start the Out The Box festival which began yesterday. So, really what I did was hang out at UCT’s Hiddingh (drama school) campus, which is the perfect place to have this kind of festival. Jaqueline Dommisse has done a fine job of putting this huge baby together, and I have to say that it feels very cohesive, even though two of the main venues are being used for un-festival stuff.
First up was Jonathan Khumbulani Nkala’s The Bicycle Thief, directed by Bo Petersen. Jonathan is a tall, skinny, smiley, affable Zimbabwean chap with a lovely voice. His show The Crossing (also directed by Bo) tells of his harrowing journey to South Africa from Zimbabwe. The Bicycle Thief is a fragment of Zimbabwean village life and growing up, with a strange South African beginning, and an even weirder (and quite abrupt) ending. Jonathan is engaging in a funny, awkward kind of way, Bo has done some brilliant things with costumes and props, making it visually interesting and exciting, but the story itself is unresolved and the whole thing is far too short, at just twenty minutes.
Next up was Man Turn Life Up and Down, a visual theatre piece based on Nigerian popular writing. Sanjin Muftic directs poet/actress Primrose “Everywoman†Mrwebi, singer/actress Nobuhle “I am an Artist†Ketelo and actress Pumeza “Fleur du Cap Nominee†Rashe (I stole these classic definitions from the facebroek page), with animation and art stuff by Jon Keevy (Yawazzi). I was very excited by the idea of this production, and mostly it delivers. Three young, hot black African chicks, in a play about what it’s like to be a black chick; where old and new values collide, get mixed up, confused and are confusing. The styling is amazing and the three of them look fabulous and give great (if a little inconsistent) performances. The show is an exciting confusion of styles, music, naturalism, stylisation, comedy, physical theatre, superb visual animation and graphic drawing. Some of the scenes (like the quizz) are too long, drawn out and directionless, and others could be slightly developed and tightened up. My favourites were the bus story and the blues song. The show is going to G’town, and could do really well there if it is given a bit of a short back and sides. For a first, test run, I thought it was really fresh, original and pretty cool.
After a delicious felafel and a glass of wine I went back to the Playroom to watch Nkosazana, a one-woman piece with Cindy Mkaza and directed by Leila Anderson. Of the three pieces I saw last night, this one is the most resolved, and therefore satisfying. Although I found the beginning and ending a little convoluted and over wrought, I really enjoyed everything else. Cindy is amazing. She is beautiful, funny, sensitive, cute, powerful and riveting. She has a lovely voice and superb physicality. I loved watching her. Leila’s costumes are absolutely phenomenal, magical, provocative and theatrical. Her simple set is beautiful too (although I wished the bed, the focal point of the stage, had been used more). I think this offering shouldn’t be missed.
So, as I left the campus last night I realised that although the three shows I’d seen were all quite different, they were unbelievably similar too. They all dealt with identity, culture, tradition and relationships. In a particularly black, African context. How refreshing. They all had moved past traditional theatre and storytelling (some more successfully than others) and were finding a new performance vocabulary. And they all gave a nod to the past and a glimpse into the future. Now that’s pretty cool.
The only thing I hated in all three productions was the playing of children. Ok, it is a pet hate of mine, but really, please, please, please! No more! I beg! No more cutesy high pitched voices and weird sideways arms.
The Out The Box festival runs this week at The Little Theatre Complex in Gardens and at The Baxter Theatre. It is a feast of visual theatre, films, puppetry, kid’s stuff, lectures and workshops, and all things visual/theatrical. I am delighted to be going to some of the stuff.
I felt very special, I must say. I was invited to a special preview performance of Amy Jephta’s new play Interiors at The Intimate Theatre last night. This kind of theatre is what I want to write about. It is a tiny, independent, original little piece, that is obviously only at the beginning stage of being. It also only has six performances, Tuesday to Sunday this week, so people of Slaap Stad, if you want to check it out you better get your act together.
The blurb about Interiors goes “It all starts when He gives Her a table for their first wedding anniversary.” And that is really what this play is all about. That is where it starts, and that is where it ends, with a lot of relationship stuff in between. Amy has written a delicious little script. It’s cute, wacky and it has an original take on a well worn theme; the path from boy meets girl to ‘WTF is he/she on about?’ It has a kind of Juno quality about it (especially with the choice of music) and I have no doubt it is the kind of play that will have huge appeal for a young, fresh theatre audience. This is good. Very good.
Amy also directs Nadia Caldeira and Bren Belknap, who are the Woman and Man respectively. They are both recent graduates of UCT’s drama department, and here lies my first problem. Neither of them have shaken off drama school yet. Nadia is by far more successful; it’s just in those little moments of tippie toeing between scenes, or ‘physical theatre’ acting that it comes through. On the whole I found her mostly engaging, although I wished that she had made slightly stronger character choices, especially when she was standing still with her hands held girlishly in front of her. Beren, for me, didn’t manage Man very well. His performance isn’t real yet. He falls into big, meaningless facial gestures and drama school (and sometimes even American?) pronunciation too often, and he didn’t really connect to the Man, or Woman genuinely enough. I know this sounds like harsh stuff; I just think that if you are going to try and pull off a two hander then you need two very, very strong performers, since they are it really. That is who you watch and who you have to put the story across.
Amy’s direction has moments of genius inspiration, but there are funny little bumps too, which make it inconsistent. Still, it is a treat to watch and listen to a fresh new voice in theatre. I do believe that this little piece has tons of potential and will grow and grow the more it is put on.
Yawazzi are responsible for the multimedia (which I completely loved) and lights are by Jon Keevy (and they are also really cool; being The Intimate an’ all). One tiny thing though, stage management and designers; I think I recognised that table. It was used in my favourite play of 2009, …miskien? wasn’t it?
I went to Tabula Rasa (the laundromat by day theatre by night) last night to watch my friend and colleague Godfrey Johnson’s new show The Shadow of Brel. I was a little apprehensive; being a bit Brelled out. He has become the height of fashion lately; a trend started by Clare Watling and Godfrey himself as accompanist. I also know Brel very well. My father introduced me to him when I was about 12, and I loved his lyrics and the theatricality of his songs. I was introduced to politics, love, seediness, friendship, and that special European sentimentality that Jacques Brel was all about. I have seen many Brel shows and even movies. I know the words to most of the popular Brel songs.
So I really lucked out last night and was delighted by The Shadow of Brel. This one, directed by Sanjin Muftic, is a real goodie. It couldn’t be simpler. Godfrey, in shirt and tie, sits straight backed at the piano and sings Brel to his own masterful accompaniment. He has chosen a very good mix of songs, including the most popular ones like Carousel, If You Go Away and If We Only Have Love, but introducing a few most obscure and interesting and unusual songs like Next (my favourite), The Lockman, and Fannette.
Godfey was naturally a bit nervous last night, which made him take extra care. Once he settles in and relaxes I think he will let rip and the show will be a complete scorcher. A friend I was sitting next to said afterwards that Godfrey was ‘without artifice’ and I thought that that was a lovely way to describe the obvious simplicity and sincerity of this show. His voice and range are perfectly suited to the material, and his interpretations are from the heart, with deep understanding.
The venue is lovely and lends itself perfectly to this kind of intimate little cabaret. I loved the washing baskets turned over into tables. Yawazzi Fish (Jon Keevy and Sanjin), a newish and very exciting theatre company in Cape Town, are responsible for the staging of this show and the creation of a theatre space in Tabula Rasa, which is, really, a laundromat. The ability to do this successfully is brilliant. This kind of thinking is what makes me love Cape Town, but these teeny ventures have got to be supported to survive. It’s so easy to get there. If you are going down Roeland street, turn left at the set of robots into Canterbury street. Go past Ohrm’s on your left. Tabula Rasa is on the opposite corner. This show is on until 20 Feb, and it’s a great one to get you there.
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