Pic: Daniel Botha as Benjamin Sprout
Beautifully scripted, directed and acted piece effectively presented in multi-media format. (Review by Caroline Smart)
Representing the first of The Playhouse Company’s New Stages productions for 2009, Tree Boy has a short run in the Playhouse Loft for the next few days.
Despite the heat – the air conditioning wasn’t working too well this evening – the production held a capacity audience enthralled. It’s a beautifully scripted, beautifully directed, beautifully acted piece effectively presented in multi-media format. The action moves smoothly from live performance to shadow play to graphics and I sincerely hope that the play will get the support it deserves wherever it performs both now and in the future.
It has a stellar creative team, from the performers to the impressive technical design line-up.
First of all, there’s the writer and designer Neil Coppen who gave us the evocative Tin Bucket Drum. He co-directs with former Durban actress/director Libby Allen, now based in Johannesburg. Together they have drawn sensitive performances from their two actors in a play which, in less experienced hands, could be in danger of becoming maudlin or sentimental.
Tree Boy is set in the early 1960s South Africa. It deals with a father and son trying to come to terms with the loss of their wife and mother. While there are some achingly poignant scenes, it is also full of amusing, endearing and forthright moments.
As the father (Arthur) and son (Ben), Michael Gritten and 11 year-old Daniel Botha bridge the generation gap comfortably and their conversations rattle along in a natural and genuine manner. In an early encounter, Arthur is valiantly trying to coax Ben out of his silence by trying to explain his action in cutting the branches of the precious tree that Ben uses as a hideaway. Their relationship is completely credible as it moves through Arthur’s alcoholic stupors, his introduction to a radio and his offer of a job in the barren Transvaal to Ben’s final act of hope.
Michael Gritten performs a number of roles including a garrulous post office executive and the strange old man who lives in a forest. There was a magical moment when the two watch a seed that has been blown to the wind and wonder where it will fall, grow and spread its branches.
Daniel Botha’s performance is very mature. One tends to forget he’s only 11. He is completely focused and professional while presenting a troubled child worried about his father and desperate at losing his links with the leafy environment in which he has grown up.
The radio allows for the passage of time through news bulletins of the time. There are numerous reminders of Springbok Radio programmes, with well-known radio actor Tom Read skilfully providing the voice of popular broadcaster Henry Howell.
The musical direction is in the hands of Karen Van Pletsen and Guy Buttery, and this includes some poignant piano solo pieces. Special visual effects were created by Cape Town-based animation company IAMINAWE.
The Playhouse is installing a modern, faster and safer lift to carry patrons to the Drama level and further up to the Loft but this is not yet operational and will only be ready next month. So if you’re not agile enough to bound up the stairs, make sure you give yourself enough time to take them at a leisurely pace!
Tree Boy has three more performances – on March 13 at 19h00 and on March 14 at 15h00 and 19h00. Tickets R45. Booking through Computicket (083 915 8000) or Playhouse Box Office during office hours on (031-369 9540/369 9596). – Caroline Smart
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