Foul Play at the Artscape
25 Apr 2010 2 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: Artscape, Roy Sargeant
I’m not precious about my Shakespeare. I love imaginative adaptations – contemporary settings are all good in my book and I’m not fussed if the accents aren’t exactly RP.
Whatever the staging decisions though, there’s got to be a reason for them. They’ve got to add to the script, work with it to create something interesting, relevant, above all, smart. They should never become so intrusive that they take centre stage.
Roy Sargeant’s Romeo and Juliet is set in contemporary Cape Town. The Montagues are white streetwise blondes – punk rock kids with more money than class. The Capulets, an affluent black upper class family with a penchant for throwing splashy parties. Everyone seems to like a bit of a skop, but the real foul play takes place off the football pitch.
Sargeant hasn’t shied away from bold modern choices. The prologue is delivered by two rappers, Lady Montague appears to be a cancer patient, all the characters sport cell phones. I can absolutely understand – indeed applaud – the desire to make Shakespearean text resonate with a contemporary young audience. Romeo and Juliet is, after all, the 2010 matric setwork and the performances are geared up to cater to a school audience.
Modern doesn’t have to mean messy, though, and this unfortunately felt more of the latter. Every variety of cultural signifiers were incorporated regardless of their suitability, with bizarre incongruities resulting. Lord Capulet with a sjambok? Why not? Long swords and AK47’s? Go for it. Friar Laurence can’t seem to make up his mind between mediaeval monk’s robes and a besuited dogcollar look, whilst Juliet – dressed as a demure 1920’s lady in the poster – conducts virtually the whole performance in denim hotpants and a bikini top (a notable exception is the balcony scene, where she looks palpably uncomfortable in a sparkling lingerie set, racing through her lines whilst towel drying her weave).
The actors are, for the most part, cruelly shown up in this performance. Hardly any of them has the range, presence or basic technique to hold the demands the script places on them. Juliet – the startlingly beautiful Zondwa Njokweni – certainly captures Juliet’s youthful beauty, but unfortunately little else. She is woefully ill equipped to handle the power, decisiveness and authority the role demands. Her Juliet rushes from scene to scene, alternating between petulant victim and wide-eyed recitation (incidentally, there is a lot of running for the sake of running in this adaptation – perhaps an attempt at presenting a link to a football-fit cast?).
Dean Roberts’ Romeo is more successful, but only just. Whole scenes go past in a blur of rushed lines, delivered with what seemed like permanent anger. Roberts gained strength as the play progressed with some relaxed quips and asides, but the whole performance seemed so difficult, so forced. The lines never felt natural, with the actors seemingly to feel the need to make up for the arcane language by pushing the performances, heightening the emotions and, often, simply shouting the lines.
In general, the Capulets were far stronger performers than the Montagues. Lady Capulet particularly gave a strong performance and Lungi Pinda was wonderfully self-satisfied as the smarmy networking Paris.
Sargeant’s directorial choices seem, frankly, bewildering. The moment of the young soon-to-be lovers’ eyes locking across a crowded room – so crucial to establishing the believability of ‘love at first sight’ – actually occurs stage right while other actors are in spotlit dialogue stage left. By the time we are allowed to focus on their interaction – and hear the glorious opening sonnet exchange – they have already presumably been making small talk for some time. Indeed, many huge moments pass by in the blink of an eye – opportunities for poignancy and drama carelessly thrown away at the expense of yet another choreographed football scene or modern gimmick. This felt like incidental Shakespeare – in an effort to make the text ‘relevant’ Sargeant has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. Some of the most beautiful lines and moving exchanges are mangled at the expense of a cheap gag.
In a bizarre choice, it is Benvolio, not the traditional Mercutio, who carries the homoerotic overtones in the play, all textual evidence to the contrary. The nurse, always a firm favourite and wonderful vehicle for bawdy wordplay, is horrendously miscast. Diane Wilson gives a spirited performance, but ultimately failed to really convince as the garrulous and loose servant – no matter what monstrosity of a slapstick laugh-inducing getup she was placed in, she was just too poised, too neatly groomed to (not) be taken seriously. Sadly, it was a case of more Constantia Village than Constantiaberg.
Special mention must be made of the lighting, particularly the ‘beam from god’ effect of spotlighting the soliloquies with an amber, moody slanting beam. During these moments time freezes, the actor turns to face the audience. It’s dreadfully clunky staging that owes more to low budget 50’s detective thrillers than high tragedy and, ironically, undermines rather than builds the dramatic tension.
The performances were mostly weak. The adaptation was uneven. Choices in interpretation and staging were frequently bizarre.Romeo and Juliet is one of the Western canon’s greatest tragedies. To have it descend into farce is an almost unforgivable act.
‘Romeo and Juliet’ runs at the Artscape until May 1. To book, call 021 410 9800.
You’d Be Meshuga to Miss This One
25 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Lara Bye, Nicholas Spagnoletti, Ntombi Makhutshi, Robyn Scott, The Fugard Theatre, The Kalk Bay Theatre
I have to admit that I was worried.
In his first produced play, Nicholas Spagnoletti has undertaken to write an all-female two-hander, writing the voices of a Nigerian illegal immigrant and a Jewish old age pensioner.
But it works. It works beautifully.
In London Road, Seapoint, one block of flats is occupied by two very different women. Stella has a husband; Rosa two children. So why are they both living alone?
As it turns out, loneliness is the key that brings these two women together, where they discover in each other a feisty independence of spirit that transcends their different backgrounds and social circumstances.
Checking out the full house?
Spagnoletti’s script is a beautiful exploration of an unlikely friendship between women. It’s clearly drawing on personal experiences of Seapoint characters and local flavour, but Spagnoletti never falls into the trap of inserting the self or ego into his writing. The setting may be his, but the voices, issues and stories are wholly theirs – a rare maturity with a relatively new playwright.
Of course, much of the credit for the piece’s success must also go to the two actors. Robyn Scott plays a woman in her seventies. In reality she’s in her thirties, yet I was completely taken in. Try to swallow that transformation over your glass of red.
In make up.
Indeed, Scott’s portrayal of the aged Rosa is, quite simply, captivating – an absolute master class in movement and breath. Her make-up, which apparently takes longer than the play itself to apply, is a tour de force, but the real magic is in the little things – an open mouth, an intake of breath, a word left hanging slightly too long. The theatre space itself is so intimate with the three sided horseshoe layout and lack of raised stage that, at times, audience members may find themselves a little close to the action for comfort. When this happens, Scott holds the gaze, nods almost imperceptivity…and it is the audience member who turns away.
Ntombi Makhutshi matches Scott with a strong performance as Stella – she carries herself with both a controlled strength and a hearty laugh, making her at once instantly likeable and a strong stage presence.
Accents bothered me slightly throughout the piece – I didn’t feel either of them were maintained fully over the course of the performance – but this will, no doubt, take shape during the run. At times, I also found the transition between time periods in the play confusing, though I hear that plans are afoot to bring in some additional design elements that will help clarify this.
London Road won the ‘audience choice’ award during the PANSA scriptwriting competition in 2007. With time taken before the first run and clear evidence of expert direction and collaboration between a talented team, this is a real success story of new South African writing. It’s such a pleasure to see a proper investment in new scripts from young writers. Spagnoletti is clearly a very talented playwright. I look forward to his next offering.
With direction by Lara Bye and an ingeniously simple set designed by Craig Leo, the play runs until May 8.
“London Road” had a sold out run at the Kalk Bay theatre from 10 March – 10 April. It has since transferred to the Fugard Theatre, where it runs until the 8 May. To book, call 021 461 4554.
Please note, this review was written on the Kalk Bay run.
Hiphopera Breaking Down the Language Barrier
08 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: The Baxter Theatre
Language, Rita Mae Brown once said, is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are now.
For a country where people have been willing to die over what language – particularly the Afrikaans language – has meant to them, this is a metaphorical road map that’s worth a closer look. Afrikaaps does just this – it’s a moving, thoughtful and, above all, rocking look at 400 years of the history of a language and a people. On paper it shouldn’t work. But jislaaik, it does.
A show full of etymology, linguistics, history….read the promo and you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a school lesson, not a piece of theatre. And, indeed, Afrikaaps does blur many lines in its 90 minutes. It’s part documentary with video interview inserts of historians and linguists, but it’s also part hip hop performance, with B boys and freestyling.
Afrikaaps is all about breaking the rules. Who says you can’t mix education and entertainment? Probably the same people who say you can’t speak ‘that kind’ of Afrikaans, the cast suggest.
“That kind” of Afrikaans that the performance celebrates is the beloved, peculiarly Cape, spoken language of thousands The performers show that, far from being a marginal dialect, separate to the ‘suiwer’ Afrikaans of textbooks and media broadcasting, Kaapse Afrikaans is the taal closest to the spirit of the original language – an expressive, colourful means of intercultural communication rooted in oral traditions. It takes Afrikaans back to its roots, showing that, far before it was a symbol of white culture, it was owned and, indeed, forged by slaves, a kombuistaal, a language of barter and diplomacy within households.
From the incredibly tall Jitsfinger to the oh-so-small Blaq Perl, these very talented performers will guide you through your ABC’s so effortlessly you’ll hardly notice how much you’ve learned – the true sign of a great teacher. Moenier Adams in particular has a spot-on, deadpan delivery and an effortless cool that will have you rolling in the aisles with laughter. He’s not just good for laughs, though, and proves his versatility with a very moving, wordless Islamic-style chant to loss, language and culture.
As befits a play about language, there are moments of pure beautiful wordplay – clever twists on familiar expressions and songs that are rendered at both familiar and fresh in their new styled delivery. My Afrikaans isn’t great, but even I could appreciate the poetic language – this isn’t just a pretty production, it’s got plenty of substance too.
With rave reviews from the KKNK, Afrikaaps is down in the Cape, where – one feels – it belongs. A hiphopera, a piece of edutainment, a beautiful contradiction, it deserves big audiences and big love. It’s a bite-sized tribute to part of the country’s history and, like the country itself, it’s vibrant, moving and complex. It’s styling. It’s very, very smart. It’s Afrikaaps and you can wrap your tongue around it any night at the Baxter main Theatre.
Afrikaaps runs Mondays – Saturdays from the 7-21 April at the Baxter Theatre. Book through computicket.
