(Pic: Ben Voss as the irrepressible Beauty Ramapelepele)Beauty Ramapelepele gives her hilarious insight on South Africa’s new global outreach. (Review by Caroline Smart)
If you’ve never heard of Ben Voss, then you must have been on another planet for the past ten years or so and the record-breaking Green/Black Mamba series he was associated with must have slithered by you while raising massive decibels of laughter as it moved throughout the country to great critical acclaim and impressive box-office takings.
Since the Mamba series, Ben has created his redoubtable alter-ego, Beauty Ramapelepele. Tall, well-dressed and highly outspoken – oh yes, and by the way, she’s black - she holds the distinction of being Business Woman of the year for her BEE-registered fabric and fashion company, Yebo Fabrics.
In his latest production, Bend it like Beauty Ben wriggles Beauty into yet another elegantly outrageous outfit – this time an Edwardian-styled crinoline gown. This is appropriate because Beauty has just spent time in England, having applied for the job of ambassador to the United Kingdom. Back in South Africa to recount her adventures, she is sponsored by SA Tourism to welcome visitors to the World Cup. Lest you conjure up a vision that she’s dressed in creamy satins and lace, forget it! The gown is brightly coloured – in fact, it’s the South African flag showing yet another example of its versatility in innovative design!
Beauty informs us that she’s managed to secure the tender for the costumes for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The fact that she’s highly politically connected has, of course, absolutely nothing to do with the awarding of the tender. As she quips, if truth be known, she’s now in the business of throwing parties rather than choosing them!
In his 70-minute performance, Ben Voss scarcely falters in a non-stop helter-skelter torrent of fun and nonsense, with some refreshing comment as well as extremely clever lines poking fun at everything from politicians and British food to bank notes and white men with no rhythm.
Beauty has an endearing chuckle and she uses it often when putting forward her forthright and often widely un-PC views! Particularly amusing was her description of her journey from the King Shaka Airport – without a statue of Shaka in sight, she tells us - a reminder of the recent fiasco of the removal of Andries Botha’s statue of the legendary Zulu king. As Beauty chatters away with rapid-fire delivery, we get to compare the quality of a British passport with a South African one and hear of her experiences at Heathrow Airport where she was probe-searched by an official who was more concerned with what to order for lunch. President Robert Mugabe comes in for much lampooning but South Africa’s own politicians are not far behind. In passing, she bemoans the fact that South Africa’s history only started in 1994.
In between berating her stage manager/assistant, the hapless Kobus, Beauty explains that she used to work for his parents as a domestic. We don’t know who the young man was who played him but kudos to him for his amusing, albeit silent, performance. Followers of the Mamba series will also recognise the amusing crime (as opposed to weather) report.
Bend it Like Beauty heads for the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown after its Durban run, by which time I am sure that minor glitches and scripting repetitions will have been ironed out. I would also be happy to see the ending cut shorter, without parodying the national anthem.
Bend It Like Beauty returns to South Africa for a national tour after a three week season in London. It runs at the Elizabeth Sneddon until June 27. Booking is through Computicket. – Caroline Smart
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