Cairns Can Do No Wrong
10 May 2012 3 Comments
in Uncategorized Tags: James Cairns, Taryn Bennett, The Kalk Bay Theatre
It’s official: I’ll see anything James Cairns is in. The man is astoundingly talented and I can’t say enough good things about his performances. With Sie Weiss Alles, I can add his writing to the mix too.
Despite being happy to see Cairns even if he were reciting extracts from the OED, it was a particular pleasure to watch him perform Sie Weiss Alles for the second time after seeing it at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in 2011, where it deservedly won a Silver Ovation Award. It is an absolute gem of a script, being nuanced, multi-layered and very, very clever.
Set at the end of World War Two, the play opens with the intriguing tableau of an intimate scene between an SS Officer and a young German woman. Faced with the certainty of an imminent and brutal death at the hands of the encroaching Russian army, fate has thrown into the captain’s interrogation room a woman from his past, brought in for questioning when her father disappears under suspicious circumstances that smack of American defection. Now, he is faced with an endgame of impossible choices. They both have nothing to lose and everything to play for. And so they begin.
The script is beautifully crafted, working on multiple levels of meaning as the pair pass the time by becoming actors in their own version of Hamlet. This act becomes a complex means of negotiating trust, of sizing up and testing boundaries, as they tread the textual line that spans more than just the physical distance between Denmark and Germany. In the drama of the high stakes games they are engaging in, truth is up for grabs to the best performer.
At once witty, clever and deeply disturbing, the play is a complex, beautifully crafted expression of human need, the meaning of acting a role, the high stakes of trust. A war story with a difference, the two-hander is brought beautifully to life by the tight direction of Tamara Guhrs and riveting performances by the actors.
Cairns will blow you away with his understated desperation, his portrait of a man at the end of his rope. It would be so easy for this piece to sink into melodrama, but he paints with such nuance that one believes the character absolutely. Taryn Bennett carried the action extremely well as a woman dexterously treading the line between truth and desire, safety and honesty.
The play-within-a-play element sees both actors having to act the slow building of meaning in the process of acting and, despite the multiple rehearsal scenes this entailed, I was riveted throughout. It is a testament to their performances that not one beat was missed, the tension never wavered and, despite some technical interference on opening night, the pair effortlessly held the audience in the palm of their hand throughout.
Go and treat yourself to the best piece of new South African writing I’ve seen in a long time. Sie Weiss Alles is a tour de force of local talent.
Cairns Can Do No Wrong
06 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: Grahamstown Festival '11, James Cairns
It’s official: I’ll see anything James Cairns is in. The man is astoundingly talented and I can’t say enough good things about his performances. Now I can add his writing to the mix too.
Despite being happy to see Cairns even if he were reciting extracts from the OED, it was a particular pleasure to watch him perform in Sie Weiss Alles – an absolute gem of a script. Written by Cairns himself, it is nuanced, multi-layered and very, very clever.
Set at the end of World War Two, the play opens with the intriguing tableau of an intimate scene between an SS Officer and a young German woman. Faced with the certainty of an imminent and brutal death at the hands of the encroaching Russian army, fate has thrown into the captain’s interrogation room a woman from his past, brought in for questioning when her father disappears under suspicious circumstances that smack of American defection. Now, he is faced with an endgame of impossible choices. They both have nothing to lose and everything to play for. And so they begin.
The script is beautifully crafted, working on multiple levels of meaning as the pair pass the time by becoming actors in their own version of Hamlet. This act becomes a complex means of negotiating trust, of sizing up and testing boundaries. In the drama of the high stakes games they are engaging in, truth is up for grabs to the best performer.
At once witty, clever and deeply disturbing, the play is a complex, beautifully crafted expression of human need, the meaning of acting a role, the high stakes of trust. A war story with a difference, the two-hander is brought beautifully to life by the tight direction of Tamara Guhrs and riveting performances by the actors.
Cairns will blow you away with his understated desperation, his portrait of a man at the end of his rope. It would be so easy for this piece to sink into melodrama, but he paints with such nuance that one believes the character absolutely.
Whilst Taryn Bennett is unquestionably a very talented actress, her performance suffered for me due to a less-than-perfect German accent. It’s hard to hide poor accent work in a two-hander and unfortunately next to Cairns, it jarred. That being said, she carried the action well as a woman dexterously treading the line between truth and desire, safety and honesty.
Go and treat yourself to the best piece of new South African writing I’ve seen in a long time. Sie Weiss Alles is a tour de force of local talent.
Back-to-Back Brilliance at the Bay
29 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: James Cairns, The Kalk Bay Theatre
James Cairns has done it again.
On the back of The Sitting Man – a theatrical treat that you can read about here - he’s presented another one man, multiple character show that will knock your socks off.
Dirt is penned by Nick Warren and directed by Jenine Collocott (as opposed to The Sitting Man, which Cairns both wrote and directed himself – phew!). Sure, the two plays have a lot in common. Performance style (one man character show where each individual vignette or episode is puncuated by recurrant performantive motifs) and plot (SA road trip where one event brings together a collection of characters) are stikingly similar. The main thing the pieces have in common, though – and the only thing, therefore, that really matters – is brilliance. This man is to theatregoers what catnip is to cats – you just can’t get enough.
Dirt takes on the tale of 3 men, brought together by the death of a mutual friend, who take a road trip from Joburg to Cape Town for the funeral. Simple, yes? Don’t be fooled. This plot has more turns than De Waal Drive.
Grant is an agitated first-time dad who’s dealing with the death of his friend as well as his sex life, Sam is an egomaniac soapie star with a serious C-list celebrity complex, Wayne is the eager-to-please nerd with a misguided sense of emotional boundaries and Tom is, well, a dog. Put them together in a car and you’d better fasten your seatbelts – this ride’s not going to be smooth.
Much of my praise for Cairns’ dextrous manouvering between superbly realised and utterly recognisable characters could come straight from my review of The Sitting Man. The man slips into character like a new set of clothes – his changes are always fluid, relaxed and utterly spot-on from the start. The Kalk Bay Theatre really lends itself to these sort of contained performances and, in keeping with the suggestive, minimalist set, really clever use is made of a ladder and token symbolic items to punctuate the vignettes.
I love how Cairns conjures up such textured, familiar South African scenes and characters. I love how simply he does it – relying on accent and movement over elaborate costumes and props. Most of all, I love how you can take a twenty minute drive and see such quality performances in quirky shows in an old converted church on the edge of the ocean.
The Sitting Man and Dirt have had me – and everyone else I’ve spoken to about them – wondering why I haven’t seen more of James Cairns before. It’s official: anything this man is in, I’m going to see. You should too.
Standing Ovation for Sitting Man
11 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: James Cairns, The Kalk Bay Theatre
The Sitting Man explores the multiplicity of stories and perspectives around a single, seemingly simple, event – the transportation of a mystery package from Johannesburg to Cape Town. As the package passes from hand to hand and travels mile by mile, it leaves violence and destruction in its wake, transforming the lives of all who come into contact with it. The tale is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, challenging and chilling. It teases your imagination, leaves you wanting more even as it has you squirming in your seat.
From the moment the lights came up to reveal Cairns’ face starkly lit staring unflinchingly at me from the single chair on an otherwise empty stage, I was hooked. It’s when he opened his mouth, though, that I really knew I was in the hands of a master performer. Cairns’ effortless transition between characters is simply mesmerising. Each is so completely envisaged, so utterly inhabited, so convincingly realised that, even with the multiplicity of perspectives he must give voice to, it is impossible to see him as any character other than the one he is portraying at the time. There is never a stray accent or awkward gesture to break the spell. There’s never a moment when you don’t believe, absolutely, that he is any one of the half dozen of so misfits and reprobates, innocents and not-so innocents that he parades in front of us.
I am quite sure that the Kalk Bay theatre space can be intimidating for performers for the very reason that it is delightful for audiences – the stage is so intimately surrounded, the space so neatly arranged that there is no space to hide, no possibility of concealing errors. Every last detail is laid bare before the audience who are so close anyone in the front row might reach out and touch the performer. Cairns used this intimacy to his advantage – at times, confrontational, at others companionable, he worked his audience with an unflinching directness and utter command of his craft. I felt he’d seen and taken measure of me the minute the lights came up and I caught his gaze. You won’t get those kind of kicks in a three hundred seater.
Admittedly, at times I found myself a little lost in the details. Certainly, the ending felt a little abrupt, leaving me slightly confused, but for me, the enjoyment was not primarily in the plot but rather in soaking up Cairns’ expert channelling of fully-imagined, utterly recognisable South African characters who come together in this interweaving local narrative.
Performers of this calibre are few and far between. He is impressive and imaginative, working the stage space with complete confidence to take you on a theatrical journey of his own through characters of all races, genders and from all walks of life. Do yourself a favour and a take a trip of your own to the Kalk Bay Theatre. It’s one hell of a ride.
