Magic, miracles and an alien love affair revisited.

First published in Sunday Independent, March 2012

Elizabeth first made eye contact with Akon through the porthole of his spacecraft.  Selene, her white Arabian mare and constant companion, stood valiantly on the hill in front of the hovering ship. The propulsion forced the long dry grass down and up, like seamless waves against the soil. Elizabeth stared unflinchingly into the wide-set and magnetic eyes of the man whom she had been searching for all her life.

elizabeth klarer with the sculpted bust of Akon

When she saw him again his spacecraft was nestled in the hollow of the mountain on the family farm in Natal. Akon stood before her, his tall lean body clad in a silver suit, and his long silver grey hair caressed his strong shoulders. He stretched out his arms, and Elizabeth ran to him. “This time you are not afraid of me”, he said.

It sounds a bit like Mills and Boon meet 2001: Space Odyssey, but for Elizabeth – respected meteorologist, environmentalist, pilot, wife, and mother – it is the story of her life. Elizabeth was born in Natal in 1910 as the descendent of a long line of professionals and musicians. She wrote her non-fiction autobiography, Beyond the light barrier, which documented her love affair with the spaceman Akon, and their son Ayling which she left behind on planet Meton, where father and son lives. Her biography also contains detailed information of UFO sightings, her experience on Meton, scientific papers, and a very strong environmental message from beyond the stars.

Beyond the light barrier, has been met with scepticism and enthusiasm – depends on who you’re talking to. In 1973 her research papers were presented at the General Assembly of the United Nations. Two years later she was given a place of honour as guest speaker at the 11^th International Congress of the UFO research group in Wiesbaden which included 22 leading scientists from around the world. Here she received a standing ovation.  Yet, back home it took a long time to get her autobiography printed as publishers declared it science fiction. She refused.

Elizabeth’s story has been the object of fascination for filmmaker Uga Carlini since the story first broke in the Huisgenoot. Uga was 8-years old. Today, after countless patient negotiations, Uga received the rights to Elizabeth’s story from David Klarer, Elizabeth’s son from her second husband. Production of Good planets are hard to find – the documentary is in full swing. Uga’s production company, Towerkop Creations will then start working on the full feature film Beyond the light barrier and prominent Hollywood producers are eagerly awaiting Uga’s script.

“As a kid I had big plans to visit Meton after my mom read me Elizabeth’s story,” Uga recalls. “Now, my fascination is not with the planet anymore but rather with this incredibly brave woman whose love story of interstellar romance spanned space, time and credibility. It is also a bona fide mystery story, sprinkled with verifiable facts, close associations with top brass military personnel, vanishings and claimed government protection programs.  She could even fly planes in between raising children, tending to the planet, and sharing advanced scientific knowledge from international podiums!”

The documentary focuses on Elizabeth the environmentalist, ‘and her foresight and knowledge that is alarmingly accurate and prophetic to this day’, Uga explains.

Uga, who received her degree in acting and directing at Stellenbosch University, recalls some of the sites where they have already started filming the documentary, “We shot scenes in the Peninsula and Hermanus, venturing to the Northern Cape, Johannesburg and Natal Midlands. I loved it, the people, the hospitality, and the genuine Ubuntu wherever we went.”

Uga reminisces on filming in Chernobyl, “Drinking radio-active vodka, the threat of wild wolves, tour guides with knives and guns that probably shoot vodka bullets, temperatures plummeting to minus 8 with the sun shining and certain areas still so radioactive it’s life-threatening to even drive past.”

“I loved the romantic and beautiful hills of Cortona in Italy. Here I went, rebel without her crew, due to budget constraints.

The Parlotones will be providing the documentary’s soundtrack.  How did she get this super popular group on board? “I just asked them,” Uga says. “I felt that without them realising it, many of their songs had parallels with Elizabeth’s story and journey. I am also a huge fan of their music and environmental work and felt it was a great fit.”

The promo of ‘Good Planets’ was recently one of 500 shorts chosen out of 7000 international entries for the prestigious InterFilm Berlin shorts competition in Germany.  It also screened during March at the Cape Winelands Film Festival.

Uga wanted to make movies, and be in movies, for as long as she can remember. “When I hit 14, being the last kid in my school to get a VHS player, I very quickly made up for the lost time,” She recalls. “I watched every single video available to rent at our local video store. My sister got to see classics like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Shining at the ripe old age of 8.”

Uga lives in Fish Hoek with her husband and a menagerie of pets including one cat from Australia and two from Fiji, tortoises, fish, birds, and Rocky the Boxer who is the canine inspiration behind a radio play that she recently completed.

“Towerkop is the original name of our house,” she explains. “The name can be seen hand carved into a piece of granite in the 70 year old rock wall against the foot of the beautiful Brakkloof Mountain behind us. When I researched the history of the house, I found the reason why it was called ‘Towerkop’ was because an underground river runs through it, making the soil extremely fertile. I also discovered that previous owners and oldies from the area could remember how one could often hear beautiful singing coming from under the Milkwood tree – no human anywhere in sight. Even though I haven’t heard the singing yet, my heart hasn’t stopped singing since I moved in and Towerkop Creations, my production company was born.”

Uga’s house is reminiscent of the magical Owl House in Nieu Bethesda. Large sculptured mermaids and owls live all along the walls and in her garden.  She clearly believes in the magic and the mystery of people and objects.  She is a fierce supporter of environmental and human rights. She publicly handed Cape Town Major Patricia de Lille an enormous pink envelope with testimonials from people who lost loved ones, or were injured, by reckless drivers along the dangerous Kommetjie road, which passes in front of her house.

She was voted as Extraordinary Woman of March by Xtraordinary Women, a platform that leads, inspires, supports and recognises women entrepreneurs in South Africa. Uga is just not the type to sit back and wait for opportunity to come knocking.

Uga ‘s hard work and perseverance paid off in double dividends when she received the rights to create a documentary and feature film about Alison Botha’s life story as written in her best-selling  book, I have Life.

Alison’s well-know story recounts her horrific real-life ordeal which took place in December 1994. She was abducted, raped, her throat slit 16 times, disembowelled by being stabbed over 30 times in the abdomen, and left for dead. However she cradled her intestines in a shirt and crawled 90 metres to the road where she was rescued.

Uga’s documentary on Alison is called Second Chances and its central theme considers that ‘not all second chances are created equal’. Alison used her second chance to inspire others. Her attackers, who were out on bail for rape at the time, utilised their second chance by raping again and trying to murder Alison. Seventeen years after her attack, Alison’s story has once again made headlines with news from the Department of Correctional Services that her attackers, together with 5000 other hardened and extremely dangerous criminals are suddenly being considered for parole.

Alison’s story really grabbed Uga, “For me, this is the most miraculous and inspirational story ever. And it is South African,” she explains. “Think about it, the book is still on the Penguin best seller’s list, since 1998, and has been translated into 7 different languages. This incredible lady should not be alive. Doctors still can’t believe that she is and not only is she, she’s been changing lives around her for the better ever since.”

“Alison is my sister from another mother,” Says Uga, “And a long lost friend I never knew I had. She is just such an incredible honey to work with and a match made in heaven for a business partner.”

In 2011, The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) sent Uga to The American Film Market (AFM) in Santa Monica where she presented both her projects which were very well received.  She is currently in negotiations with several major Oscar award-winning producers who have taken a keen interest in her work.

“As one attends film festivals and film marts world wide, one really starts getting a sense, that as filmmakers, we really are equal in some of the challenges we face,” Uga explains. “An Oscar win doesn’t necessarily guarantee the funding to come in overnight for the next project and you are only as good as your last project. The work never stops and often filmmakers forget that its movie business after all. The business side is as important as the creative side and the one cannot stand or function without the other.”

Uga’s mission is to keep making female driven heroine films that inspire and entertain. “To eat more chocolate,” she smiles, “Have lots more animals, green our house completely, raise children to whom environmentalism is not a term but a given and to make my investors so happy with their returns that they start phoning me . And to make the kind of movies for you that make you come back for more every time.

©Astrid Stark

Alison Botha & uga carlini

Theatre Review: King Lear.

It’s oh so ugly!

ASTRID STARK reviews

A concoction of greed, lust for power, and anarchy, lead to madness and murder in one of the Bard’s most tragic of tragedies.  King Lear, Graham Weir, is ready to hand over his Kingdom to his three daughters, but petulantly forces the three to declare, and prove, their unwavering love and devotion to him. The apple of his eye, Cordelia,  Deborah Vieyra, refuses to give into her father’s request which sets of a series of events leading to a horrendous and inevitable tragedy.

Guy de Lancey’s direction of this bleak affair hits straight into the eye of the abyss, and it stays there, with only Nicholas Pauling’s Fool occasionally lifting it out for sporadic bursts of comic relief.

Weir’s character starts off in the play as the confident, if already a bit dotty, retiring King.  However, when his beloved Cordelia does not give in to his whim he literally throws his toys out of the cot in a very un-kingly fashion. His disbelief turns to anger and rage.  Madness starts seeping in as his two venomous daughters, Goneril, Juliana Venter, and Regan, Emily Child, turn on him as soon as they inherit their wealth. “Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, More hideous, when thou show’st thee in a child, Than the sea-monster.”- Lear laments as he realises he favoured the two greedy sisters over the honest Cordelia and her servant Kent, Adrian Galley. Kent appears to be the last honest man standing and Galley delivers a fine performance.

Venter and Child’s evil Goneril and Regan are chillingly effective as the wicked manipulating older sisters.  Their final demise is truly horrid to behold.

There are many sub-plots creeping in from all angles to add to the drama.  Edmund, Adrian Collins, is the delightfully despicable and evil manipulating bastard son of Gloucester, Jeroen Kranenberg who lusts after power. Edmund plots a smear campaign against Gloucester’s son in a bid for ultimate power. Edmund and his cronies are perhaps representative of the new world’s youthful disregard for respect and hard work in favour of greed, instant gratification, and a hunger for power.

Whilst all the actors in King Lear are clearly passionate and deeply emerged in their roles, there were a few elements of the play that were disturbing. The entire floor stage floor is covered in stark white gravel which, when combined with the minimalistic lighting and black surrounding walls and roof, gave the striking and surreal appearance of a cold wasteland –  the abyss – perhaps reflective of the King’s inner turmoil. Visually it is very effective, however whenever an actor crossed the stage the gravel made quite a noise which became distracting at times when it overpowered the actors’ voices.  The smoke machine’s rapid bursts were equally distracting at times and it even appeared to disturb some of the actors on stage.

At times the actors’ voices did not quite carry across the theatre, and their words became a little incoherent.

All the elements and performances considered, Guy de Lancey manages to capture the bleakness and despair of play very well and he clearly knows how to coax his actors into fearless performances.   Weir makes a good Lear in that he evokes a plethora of emotions in us as he wrangles with himself, those around him, and ultimately, his sanity.

The Mechanicals’ Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey recently won the Fleur du Cap Awards’ People’s Choice Award, as well as Best Director (Albert Maritz) and Best Actor (Carel Nel), for the same play.

Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Guy De Lancey. With Graham Weir, Jeroen Kranenburg, Nicholas Pauling, Adam Neill, Adrian Collins, Adrian Galley, Darren Arraujo, Pierre Malherbe, Shaun Acker, Matthew Alves, Kim Kerfoot, Nicholas Dallas, Juliana Venter, Emily Child, Deborah Vieyra, John Skotnes and Gerhard Rasch. Lighting Design by Guy de Lancey. Wardrobe by Leila Anderson and Alicia McCormick.  Intimate Theatre. Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7h30PM until 5 May.

BOOKING END TEXT:

* Tickets are R140. Bookings at   littlebookings@gmail.com call The Little Theatre on 021 48 0 7129

An Absolute Turkey

STUFFED WITH LUST, LIES AND LAUGHS

AN ABSOLUTE TURKEY.

Now here is a classic French farcical romp that will have you in stitches from beginning to end. Three couples’ lives unexpectedly collide. It is all smoke and mirrors with these guys as they flaunt their flimsy moralities. Their lies and trickery explode all around them in a series of events, which they initiated with glee, but are soon unable to control.

Playwright Georges Feydeau is one of the masters of the farce. An Absolute Turkey is one of his most enjoyable with its quick wit, hilarious plot and crackling dialogue.  The enthusiastic and talented cast from the UCT Drama Department breathes new life into Feydeau’s play which was written in 1896.

 

The play’s title was translated from the French, Le Dindon, which at the turn of the century, in France, meant turkey or fool.  This play has its fair share of womanisers, liars, and opportunists, but mostly fools. The biggest of them al is the skirt-chasing, cheating – instantly likeable cad – Monsieur Pontagnac.  This lanky fellow creeps about the streets stalking women, ladies declaring his undying and unstoppable love to them at the drop of a hat.  Trouble arrives when he follows his friend’s wife Lucienne and he is instantly smitten by the sharp-tongued beauty. 

However, the bourgeois and self-righteous Lucienne says she will never cheat on her husband. Until she suspects that her husband is having a sordid little tryst, upon which she declares, ‘I am a firm believer in revenge. I told my husband I would punish any infidelity by pretending to take a lover myself. But I wouldn’t actually pretend’. And so the farce takes off at full and hilarious speed with the opportunistic Pontagnac trying to catch Lucienne’s husband and lover in the act.  Of course Lucienne’s husband artfully dodges his wives investigations and questions. Pontagnac declares that his wife is on her deathbed until a dashing blond in glowing health appears at his side; his wife.  And so lust turns into misdirected revenge and regret as the characters weave themselves super tight into a web of deceit.

Feydeau has such fun with his extraordinarily immoral characters as he turns the inside out and exposes the hypocrisy of human behaviour. Throughout the play he often shows a lack of any moral judgment in his plot. He teases and tortures equally, the innocent and the gullible, along with the vindictive, selfish and ignorant.  Feydeau was a legend of his time and was often referred to as the father of the French farce.  He wrote his first play at age twenty and by the time he gave up the ghost he had completed 26 plays.

The entire cast must be commended for their earnest and enthusiastic approach to the play.  With utter dedication each one of them have clearly absorbed his or her  character and there is seldom a slip out of the respective accents and quirky traits.  It really is so enjoyable to watch such energetic performances bristling with talent and youthful exuberance.

My only complaint is that the play needs a bit of an edit. As it stands, it is quite long for your standard farce. I felt my attention slipping a bit towards the end of the first half.  All the characters had been beautifully set up in the beginning and the tension was spun like a tightrope which started to sag a bit towards the middle.  The second half was a little slow to get up but once it got going it crackled along beautifully and ended hilariously.

The fast action on stage is enhanced by Foley effects such as us slamming doors, ringing bells, creaking beds, and well-known rock guitar riffs being played live on stage by a mysterious woman in dark glasses.  Three actors at the back of the stage, hiding only behind safety helmets, took charge of the smashing sound effects.

:

TUFFED WITH LUST, LIES AND LAUGH Written by Georges Feydeau. Directed by Barry Christopher. With senior UCT drama students including Matthew Alves, Jessica McCarthy, Ella Gabriel, Lauren Laubscher and Oliver Booth. Little Theatre. First published in Cape Times

* Tickets are R40-R60. Bookings at www.webtickets.co.za or call The Little Theatre on 021 4807 129

Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards 2012

Gone was the giant table groaning under mountains of pancakes, exotically coloured ice-cream, whipped cream, hot chocolate, giant glass bowls of smarties and jelly tots, éclairs and fistfuls of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.

This year’s Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards was a greatly toned down affair.  If I have to write about the recession again I will be sick for sure. But what the annual Fleur du Caps lost in splurge budget to keep the theatre whores happy, they certainly made up by refocusing the energy and awards money to a great new range of awards offered.  Good job I say.

47^th annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards was held at the Baxter Theatre on 18 May. The new categories added include puppetry, costume/mask design, set design, lighting design and sound design/original composition. 

Personal highlights:  FTHK, by Deaf and Hearing integrated theatre company won the award for innovation in theatre. This is one hot theatre company that simply barge through obstacles and tease and titillate their audiences with their smorgasbord of eclectic but still accessible theatre.  Gumbo, Pictures of You and Wombtide are all legendary pieces of theatre conjured up by this team.

Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey by The Mechanicals, another one of those balls-to-the-wall theatre companies, received three awards including People’s Choice award, Best Lead Actor in a play and Best Director. Did you miss this piece of brilliant theatre? Well sorry for you. Maybe it will come back just for the laatslapers.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was gracefully received by teacher and theatre practitioner Christopher Weare. What an incredibly generous being. The lives he has changed for the better.

Best speech of the night. Well actually most of them were truly heartfelt this year. And funny, and at times upstaged the experienced MC Alan Committie, who by the way was eyeball popping hilarious and super quick of the mark with his funny retorts. Saul Radomsky received the award for Best Set and/or Props Design for his great work in The Bird Watchers. Oh how he made us laugh when he said that the did not write his speech down and he really hope he doesn’t fuck it up. And a few more expletives followed. This elderly, comely looking gent with a filthy mouth. Precious.

Donvino Prins and his band made the music afterwards.   I loved the beautifully understated performance by Garage, who performed in wheel barrels, and out.  I did not like the way that Garage, who were all coloured or black, would take the submissive position to hold out their hands with the award envelopes in it to be collected by the MC’s. No I am not being supersensitive, it felt off, and it made me cringe especially since every award winner apart from David Dennis was white.

Which brings me to Lara Foot’s passionate speech on the evening which questioned why after all these years, the entire audience and 99% of the winners are still white.  Every year somebody mentions this and here we find ourselves again.  I have seen the most incredible work during 2011 by black and coloured performers. Not a lot at all. Because there just are not that much on offer, but he ones I saw were spectacular and so unique in what they offer. We are shooting ourselves in the foot, big time, by not doing everything in our power to broaden this platform to be more inclusive and to include new voices.  The magic they have to offer may otherwise never be seen and we will all be poorer for that.

I loved the shorter awards ceremony and the lovely Fleur du Cap wines afterward. The winners of 2012 Fleuries are all passionate and well-deserving winners and Distell must be applauded for their generosity. Each winner receives R15 000 in prize money as well as a medal. But it is also about having won an award because then the international and local press sit up and take notice, which in turn can create greater sponsorship and bigger audiences.

Astrid Stark

The full list of winners is as follows:

1.    Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play
Carel Nel in Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey as Lafras Verwey

2.    Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play
Wilna Snyman in Klaasvakie as Albertine

3.    Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Play
David Dennis in The Tragedy of Richard III as Edward IV and others

4.    Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Play
Nicole Holm in Klaasvakie  as Die Verpleegster

5.    Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical/Musical Theatre
Jonathan Roxmouth in Phantom of the Opera as Phantom

6.    Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical/Musical Theatre
Robin Botha in The Phantom of the Opera as Christine

7.    Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Musical/Musical Theatre
Jonathan Roxmouth in Jesus Christ Superstar as Judas Iscariot

8.    Best Performance by a Supporting Actress in a Musical/Musical Theatre
Angela Kilian in Phantom of the Opera as Madame Giry

9.    Best Performance in a Cabaret/Revue/Solo Performance
Nicola Hanekom for her solo performance in Hol

10.  Most Promising Student
Janene (Nini) Conradie & University of Stellenbosch

11.  Best Director
Albert Maritz for Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey

12.  Best Lighting Design
Mannie Manim for Solomon & Marion

13.  Best Set and/or Props Design
Saul Radomsky for  set design in The Bird Watchers

14.  Best Costume and/or Mask Design
Marcel Meyer for costume design in The Tragedy of Richard III

15.  Best Sound Design and/or Original Score
James Webb for sound design in The Bird Watchers

16.  Best Puppetry Design
Janni Younge for Ouroboros

17.  Best New South African Play
Solomon & Marion  by Lara Foot

18.  Award for Innovation in Theatre
FTH:K (from the hip: khulumakhale)

19.  Lifetime Achievement Award
Christopher Weare

20.  People’s Choice Award – Die Rebellie van Lafras Verwey

Last Band Standing

Band Survivor Hout Bay – First published in Cape Times

Kicking off your shoes at a beach bar, sipping on an ice cold beer and listening to young, enthusiastic and upcoming local bands thrashing it out on the stage is a pretty cool way to end a working day.  And, you get to do this gazing at the backdrop of Chapman’s Peak Mountain, glowing a fiery pink from the setting sun, with the smell of the ocean lazily drifting into your nose. We are rather lucky in Cape Town.

But it’s not really all about the audience. Band Survivor Hout Bay is offering local unsigned bands a free platform to show off their stuff and, as the event organisor, Aidan Harper says, ‘help to launch their music careers more so than dragging a drum kit from gig to gig or using beer money to replace snapped guitar strings’. The wining band walks away with R10 000-00 and a production recording of a single.  The 2nd prize is the production recording of a single. 3rd prize is two, three hour rehearsal sessions.

Survivor Band runs for 6 weeks at La Cabane, a super chilled out beach restaurant and bar. Bands play in front of the audience members who all receive voting slips. Each vote contributes to the final weekly score. The top 4 acts of the week will compete on the Saturday. The semi-final play-off is on Saturday 24th March.  The final is on Saturday 31st March.

So far, the bands that have made it through to the semi finals include; Al Bairre, Hotel Iris, K Ray and the Bird, Ratrod Cats, Wild Lettuce and Shamanzi. These guys are relatively unknown at this stage of the game but they are playing their hearts out to make a name for themselves.

Hotel Iris, a four-piece band, pulled in a good crowd with their soulful bluesy rock pop songs.  They are less than 3-months old but they seem determined to fight their way to the top.  It is a rather eclectic band that jams with an acoustic guitar, electric guitars harmonica, drums,  mandolin, bass guitar and, keyboards.

Ratrod Cats certainly got my vote for the day. Their style is a rockabilly psychabilly fusion of old and new. They dress up in two tone shirts and shoes , vintage glasses, slicked back hair and lots of tattoos.  One of the categories on our audience voting sheets include appearance, stage presence and audience interaction, and the guys are giving it their all. The girls in the audience are quick to get up and gyrate in the setting sun and they howl when it is the Cat’s last number.  Ratrod Cats write all their own music and it is a refreshing new style that doesn’t fall into a rock solid genre and they are striving to not follow the style of popular American bands.

Ratrod Cats - Band Survivor Hout Bay

Bands bring their own instruments but the sound, lights and gear are professionally managed by Aidan Harper of MyMusicMatrix.com who has this seemingly endless passion for growing the local music industry.

The venue, La Cabane, is perfectly suited for Band Survivor. With its gorgeous mountain backdrop, custom-build stage and plenty of dancing and seating spaces under stars, they are aiming to establish themselves as a leading live gig venue.  And the food is delicious. Belgian owner and chef, Joe De Jonk, lusts after good music and great food and he has combined the two in a easy going venue which makes you just want to kick back and chill out.

Play offs take place every night of the week, from 7 to 9pm, with two bands per night. Audience members each receive a voting slip. Each vote contribute to final weekly score. The audience only pays to watch the semi-final and final gigs, which are R20 and R30 respectively, and a percentage of proceedings go to DARG (The Domestic Animal Rescue Group) in Hout Bay. DARG, a pro-life, non-profit organisation that rescues, cares for, and re-homes abused, neglected and abandoned cats and dogs has had no less than 4 break-ins over the last few weeks and they certainly need the support. So go and have a fun night out and help them back on their paws.

Some of the judges include: Lionel Jardin (Studio owner, Music shop owner), John Belyeu, (Recording artist, producer, music business consultant), Joe De Jonk (La Cabane owner), Toni Lehmensich (MyMusicMatrix), Darrel McLean (Drummer for Anton Syndrome and Thought Police), Anton Marshall (Digital Content editor for Rolling Stone SA, Bass player for Long Time Citizens and Cedric Sampson,SABC 3 Producer).

Unsigned bands interested in competing still have until 20 March to sign-up, and they can do so by phoning 021 820 3851, or e-mail martinette@mymusicmatrix.com.    For a look at the venue, go to www.lacabane.co.za

*Two double-tickets are up for grabs for the finals.

e-mail competitions@mymusicmatrix.com, for a chance to win.

The End

Theatre is for the birds

Theatre is for the birds.

I have been feeling a little bit disheartened (bored to distraction) by some of the recent theatrical productions in Cape Town. Maynardville’s presentation of Comedy of Errors keeps jumping into my head. What a calamitous romp through Shakespeare and Kung Fu. I so wish I did not have to witness it. And yet I read reviews that sang its high praises. I thought for a while that I was becoming hard. Jaded.  Instantly recognizing the need for self-medication I ignored all theatre invites and visited the bottom of my cupboard for introspection.  Then along came Owl.  Well actually to be honest before Owl came The Birds – by Aristophane – which ran at Kirstenbosch. What a venue. Great  performances. Great costumes… and then came Owl.

 

Here’s a play that is likely to give you total recall of  sweaty heavy petting in the dark, the exhilaration of the first kiss, and the absolute realization of how your world has shifted, only a bit – but certainly permanently – to another plane after you lost your virginity.

 

Briony Horwitz is Olivia, the shy new girl in town who meet up with Kay, a fast talking, rough –around-the-edges type of girl that hides her pain underneath her tough exterior. The girls’ innocent friendship turns to confusion and serious introspection as the years go by and Olivia finds herself in love with Kay.  The girls have to deal with all the awkwardness of growing up as well as abuse and neglect.  Sounds heavy but it somehow is not.  It is just so totally honest. And real.

 

Mostly, when I go to the theatre, I look forward to it as an opportunity to escape, ‘Let’s go and look  at how other people see the world for a change,’ and walking out of my own head for an hour – which is sheer relief.  Owl doesn’t let you escape. Instead it draws you in and hypnotizes you with its apparent simplicity. Briony plays a slew of characters with a seamless breathless ease that had our eyes transfixed to her every movement. The stage is bare apart from a battered sofa which she uses and abuses as she lives through her characters. Fiona Du Plooy’ choreography is uncanny, a little distressing, but mostly mesmerizing as she directs Briony’s slender body through her agonizing and exhilarating moments. 

 

It felt at times as if Briony’s characters were ever so slightly tilting a mirror towards the audience, which is terribly unnerving. It is a play performed by a woman, about a woman growing up – written by a man. I never got to ask Jon Keevy how he managed to get to write such a beautifully honest coming-of-age piece from a female perspective. He is obviously either a genius or he has seven sisters. No matter, I do predict that this play will travel well on its way to Grahamstown and beyond.

 

Owl runs until 2 March 2012. For more information or bookings call 084 2498532 / or e-mail owl@jonkeevy.com
review by Astrid Stark

 

 

 

Theatre review: Statements

Theatre review: Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act

Walking out of the theatre after this performance it felt as if I had been hit in the guts with a cricket bat. Athol Fugard’s Statement, is to the devout theatre lover what biking from Cairo to Cape Town is to the avid cyclist, or summiting the world’s seven highest peaks is to a mountain climber.  It sounds extreme, but it is an extreme piece of work.

From the very opening scene where Frieda Joubert, performed by Bo Petersen, turns the simple act of drying her hair in the sun into a languid, poetic lament, the audience clung to her lips like bees to a flower.  What follows is a magnetic performance by a luminous cast.  Script, performances, direction; this is as good as South African theatre gets; certainly for me.

Fugard himself directed and acted in the play in the early seventies. The basic premise of the play, as advertised, is the story of a white woman and a coloured man caught out in the midst of a passionate and enduring love affair during our apartheid years. The doomed couple, who met for their trysts in the library where she worked, were spied upon by a neighbour and eventually arrested and charged under the inhuman Immorality Act. I would venture a guess that I was not the only person in the audience feeling a bit concerned that the words and situation of the tormented lovers would be somewhat dated and lost in our frenetic scurry for equality, and our hurry to bolt the doors on apartheid – for good. My concern was fuelled by the greater public’s outraged outcry over the recent political poster showing a white man and a black woman in a nude embrace – similar to the poster advertising this play.

My fears were unfounded. Typically, Fugard has it all in hand. It is certainly not a straightforward black and white story resurrected from the brittle pages of history.  The intelligent and captivating dialogue between Frieda Joubert and her coloured lover Errol Philander, played by Malefane Mosuhli, soon reveal the couple’s deep seated fears and hopes which include dealing with issues of fidelity, mortality, suppression, and of course the consequences of the Immorality Act.

Petersen’s character is a few years older than her lover, yet she has led a conservative and protected existence. She is trying to come to terms with her almost teenager-like powerful emotions on the one hand, and on the other – her aging body.  Here it is appropriate to mention that both Mosuhli and Petersen are stark naked for the duration of the entire play.  During a scene Bo Petersen’s character stands to the front of the stage under the spotlight, starkers, and explores her feet, her tummy, and laments her slightly sagging breasts. It is such an honest and tender exploration by an actor of her character’s fears, her mortality and her vulnerability. It felt as if the entire audience were collectively holding its breath for the duration of her moving monologue. Not only are the words and the plight of the couple profoundly moving, once you add to it full unashamed, and relentless, nudity –you are in for an extreme theatre experience.

Fugard’s use of nudity emphasises the vulnerability of the characters. There is nowhere to hide. Every bit of their anatomy is etched out by the spotlight. At first the couple is happily naked in a celebration of each others bodies.  Later on their nakedness is used against them during the interrogation to strip away any morsel of dignity. Even later still both Philander and Joubert come clean, naked, to themselves about what they really fear.  In this play clothes, in absentia, may well represent denial, the masks of society, and the barriers between people that keep them from making honest connections. So you see it really is not only black and white at all.  Another big shocker it Mosuhli’s performance as the younger man in love with Joubert.  Mosuhli, just fresh out of the Universtity of Cape Town’s Drama Department, delivers an honest and powerfully moving performance. When we first meet him he seems like the randy opportunist and we nod in recognition of this character. Then it becomes clear he has a loving family and kids waiting at home, and we are outraged. He, we decide, is not as sincere as Joubert about their illicit relationship.  She wants to elope with him and he just wants a roll in the hay. We judge him harshly.  Then Mosuhli delivers his character’s final blowing monologue which cuts to the very core of what it means to love and live, and we are floored.

Jeroen Kranenburg plays a relatively small but important supporting role as Detective-SGT J. du Preez. And he delivers a smart and funny performance as the typically nosy, conservative neighbour, who spies on the couple. Kranenburg is always a delight to watch as he totally immerses himself in his characters. His outstanding lead role in the Aristophanes’ The Birds, which showed recently at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, is still fresh in my mind.

Athol Fugard himself said this production of director Kim Kerfoot’s Statements is one of the best of his work that he has ever seen.  “The sensitivity and delicacy,” says Fugard, “with which he has directed this blighted love story takes it out of the museum of Apartheid Artifacts and makes it as timely and relevant in today’s world as it was when Yvonne Bryceland, Percy Sieff and I opened the courageous Pace Theatre with it nearly forty years ago.”

Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest under the Immorality Act runs at the Fugard Studio until 11 February. Tickets cost from R100 to R140 and are available through Computicket and the Fugard Theatre box office on 021 461 4554.

For reasons of nudity and subject matter this production is not suitable for persons younger than 16.