NAF DEEP FREEZING

Deliciously innovative idea well performed but dialogue often too fast or high-pitched. (Review by Caroline Smart)

Deep Freezing, which is currently running on the Fringe of the National Arts Festival, is a deliciously innovative idea about two tuckshop ladies who have been frozen in time since the 1950’s. We meet them as they thaw out in 2010 to find their world radically changed.

Written by and featuring Juliet Jenkin and Frances Slabolepszy, who give good performances, the piece is directed by Alex Halligey. It’s described as “An Afro-Gothic Fantasy on National Themes, Deep Freezing is an ice-scream.”

Audrey (Slabolepszy) is the elegant one with pearls and a rose pink suit while red-headed Maude (Jenkin) is in a summery dress. Maude also tends to stay close to their ice-chest home as she melts very quickly. This conveniently comes in handy when Audrey suggests she goes out in search of familiar landmarks or people – as well as the all-important children they need to survive.

By checking the dates on the magazines stored in their ice-chest which go back as far as 1936 and 1965, they work out what year this should be. Mind you, if we’d heard the sounds of the dreaded vuvuzelas, that would have been a rock-solid indication. The two women don’t see any white children in the vicinity so decide that they need to learn isiZulu. Audrey is skilled in the language and the dialogue then alternates between English and isiZulu.

My biggest problem was that the dialogue was often too fast to be comprehensible and the actresses tend to get too high-pitched. Once isiZulu was introduced, the action became more complicated to follow.

Deep Freezing was voted one of the five best shows of last year’s Festival and is back by popular demand. Perhaps they weren’t having their best performance the day I went but I wasn’t alone in the audience with my misgivings. – Caroline Smart