Market theatre

The good white

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The good white

Opening of “The good White” at the Market Theatre. I love the Market Theatre, the place was vibrant and buzzing. Even posed for a couple of pictures – press time.

A different perspective to the #feesmustfall and #rhodesmustfall movements. The story follows Professor Simon Whitehead, a senior ranking official of the University, his Zimbabwean colleague who plans to launch his book on Decolonization and his colored wife who also holds a high position at the University. It is set in a world of unrest and desolation, a world where the youth feel betrayed by the current system and the leaders that preceded it. Nelson Mandela preached “rainbownism”, he didn’t change anything, the systems of apartheid are still in place. Apartheid still roams but in a different form, with new and fancy terminologies. While real people still suffer, inequality rife and students can’t afford schooling. Everything is blamed on the white man; the patriarchy, apartheid, inequality, racism, no access to education – all him! It is a world that unsympathetic to the white man, it is even played for comic relief and features as a running gag, you’ll hear Simon saying “the white man has no feelings, everything is his fault” as a way to defuse the tension. It is a world that keeps kicking Professor Simon Whitehead in the head. He is in a cold, loveless and detached relationship with a woman who cheats on him with his Zimbabwean colleague. For the woman, the relationship is purely transactional, white man married to a colored woman, diversity, it’s good for PR. She won’t even say “I love you”, instead she says “do you need me to love you”? Eventually, they separate.

This is a brilliant play, the writing by Mike van Graan is the hero and the acting just world-class. The show has a lot, the characters have personality and the script wit. Shonisani Masutha is powerful, I loved her poetry and the emotion in her words. She plays a character from the township whose parents are deseased. She is angry and in protest – she demands change! Renate Stuurman plays the wife, she is harsh and insensitive at times, very antagonistic, could be because of her past, apartheid, her family was moved from Wynberg to the Cape Flats. Vusi Kunene plays the Zimbabwean colleague, his book launch is hilarious, it was chaos, there was protesting and the township girl undressed in front of everyone. Russel Savadier is Professor Simon Whitehead – I just felt sorry for the white man.

The scenes and the lighting are seamless and just flow. Totally loved the set, it is subtle, minimalistic and compact with three stages all in all, one to the left, one to the right and one in the middle that has retractable seats that can be pushed back inside. Hovering above the middle stage are signs that demand:

Decolonize education
Free quality education

feesmustfall

Education is not a privilege
Senzeni Na
Fees with what money
Asinamali
Free education is possible

Congratulations Greg Homann and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Life and times of Micheal K

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Life and times of Micheal K

Just when you think you have seen it all, something you haven’t seen comes along and blows you away.

I was at the Market Theatre to watch “The Life and Times of Micheal K”, a novel by JM Coetzee adopted by Lara Foot. The story is told through puppetry and physical theatre. The story is of a man named Michael K, who along with his very sick mother make an arduous journey from Cape Town to her mother’s rural birthplace in Prince Albert amid a fictitious civil war during the apartheid era. To get there Michael K builds a shoddy rickshaw to carry her mother. Along the way they head into some trouble, they don’t have the right paperwork and permits and the little money they have gets confiscated by soldiers. His mother ends-up in the hospital and passes on. She is cremated. Alone, dejected, hungry and with nothing Micheal K carries on the journey to Prince Albert to scatter her dead mother’s ashes. Along the way, he is exploited for cheap labor and he goes through an intense starvation period. Soldiers also misidentify him as a rebel and keep him hostage but he survives and escapes finding his way back to his mother’s apartment in Cape Town. It is revealed that Micheal K has a deformity, a cleft lip and because of this deformity people tend to treat him like he is lesser, slow.

The story-telling with the puppets is amazing. The puppets mimiced the real life movements of humans. The puppet masters understand the human anatomy, how the leg moves and the bend of the knee when the foot touches the base. The movements of the puppets were realistic. Somehow the puppets even had facial expressions, a testament to their realism. Supplemented in was the voice-actors, they breathed in life to the puppets, the puppets were panting, moaning, laughing and just communicating like any other ordinary human being. The puppets moved the story. The manipulators worked in tandem to achieve the desired effect, double teaming in groups of threes or four per puppet to move the limbs, while others lend their voices and manipulated the torso and head. I loved how the goat puppet was manipulated, it moved like a real goat. My favorite scene was the swimming scene, it was so intense. The team chemistry is beautiful. They are deliberate, concise and work with care. Every movement has a purpose, every detail added to the story. With Kyle Shepherd on the score, the show is poignant and emotional. Story-telling techniques like deliberate silence were used to make the audience reflect and take in the significance of what just transpired. After a while, you even forgot about the manipulators, the puppets came alive and told the story.

That was an amazing show, story-telling perfection is my humble opinion. I loved everything about the show, the sets, the props, the lighting, puppets and the music. The 2 hours watching fly, because you are having so much fun. It’s a story-telling masterclass, it’s different, innovative and inspiring. Shout-out to the Handspring Puppet Company, those puppets are just awesome!

Basil JR Jones and Adrian P Kohler are the Puppet Directors

Puppet Masters are:
Sandra Prinsloo
Andrew Buckland
Faniswa Yisa
Craig Leo
Carlo Daniels
Roshina Ratnam
Billy Langa
Marty Kintu
Nolufefe Ntshuntshe
Markus Schabbing

Congratulations Lara Foot and the whole team for a great show and a deserved standing ovation.

Coal Yard

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Coal Yard

Just about the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. Story-telling on another level. Outstanding show, amazing performers. They were filled with enthusiasm and outflowed with energy. They were relentless on the stage, they were always moving, doing something, complimenting the current act, serving out sound effects, being props – I am not surprised they were sweating. Absolutely no set, just an empty stage and they created magic. Effective story-telling is centered around the premise of showing not telling. The show is a prime example of that premise. Since there is no set, the performers imitate the sound of props. From vacuum cleaners, matches, chairs streetching on the floor, cars, doors, just about everything. The show also has a catchy soundtrack that is sang by the cast members to indicate that time has past or a change of scenes or tempo. It’s literally like watching a movie on stage without the sets and big budget. They paint a picture so effective with the mimicry of props and their sounds and their movements on the stage. The performers are in sync, they work well with each other and assist each other all the way through. Every scene is clear and vivid, it’s descriptive and rich in detail. The transition from scene to scene is seamless, it just flows, it doesn’t even matter that the performers, perform multiple characters. All gents cast and they managed to play ladies, comical but convincing too, they captured the essence of being a woman. It’s unbelievable how they played so many characters effectively. The show is supremely entertaining and funny. It captured the human condition beautifully, they imitated life on the stage and it was artful. The performers are expressive, they make use of the stage to perfection, jumping, running, crawling all about. They have energy. They are full of life. They are humorous. It’s difficult to look away, they are captivating and the different characters command your attention. I have to say Mr. Naidoo is exploitative. Paying someone half-price because he is shorter is ridiculous.

The show contains a three act structure and the hero has an redemptive arc at the end. A story of a man fleeing home owing to sexual abuse by his father. The depiction of this sexual abuse is tasteful and not vulgar and forceful. Instead a container of “Baseline” (Vaseline) is held up for the audience to see, this communicates what is transpiring in the scene. An effective way of saying something, without really saying it. It’s suggestive and effective and works well considering the sensitivity of the subject matter. After the hero flees from home, he gets a job working at a Coal mine and later meets a girl he falls in love with. Traumatized by his father’s sexual abuse, he has a problem performing and ultimately the girl looks the other way, searching for greener pastures. The story comes full-circle when the hero comfronts his father now in prison for his sexual abuse. The story is told by committed actors who are creative and have a lot of range in their arsenal. They love what they do, they were having the time of their lives on the stage. The tone is easy-going and relatable for the average South African of color. No need for fancy dialogue and words, a mixture of “vernac”, “tsotsi taal” and English will do. The lighting of the show is incredible, it too tells and moves the story. Powerful piece of theatre, so artistic and satisfying.

My hat goes off to the performers, Diphapang Mokoena, Tumelo Mokoena, Abongile Matyutyu and Mbovu Malinga, one word – unbelievable! Amazing creatives who literally created magic on the stage. Also, well done to Nomvula Molepo, the lighting designer who helped the artists create this magic. The lighter was gorgeous! SamSays on the credits, another great one Sam. Thank you for sending me out to review this masterpiece. Congratulations Prince Lamla and a raucous standing ovation.