(Darren King and Clinton Small in “Callum’s Will”)Theatre-goers who took the time to attend the inaugural I Heart Durban Festival were treated to wonderful new works by some of the best writers and actors in Durban. Estelle Sinkins was among those who made the trip to the University of KwaZulu-Natal drama department last weekend and shares her thoughts on what she saw. (Courtesy of The Witness)
CALLUM’S WILL: With each play, Janna Ramos-Violante shows more clearly what a bright new writing talent she is. Having just completed a short run of the acclaimed two-hander, Mein Soldat, at the Playhouse, she staged her brand new work, Callum’s Will.
Set in London in the 1990s, Darren King plays Callum, a former ballet dancer who is confined to a wheelchair following an accident and isolated from the world around him.
The play’s initial heavy silence is broken only by a scratchy record to which King, with heartbreaking poignancy, performs ballet movements. His longing for a past now gone is tangible and heart-rending. Into this world struts handsome young wannabee writer, Will (Clinton Small), who has been sent by an agency to help Callum run errands. Callum’s caustic comments – which include the wonderful line: ‘Is there any reason you look like a human cucumber?’, said in response to Will’s wearing a green tracksuit and shirt – fail to ruffle his helper, who is saving money to do a course.
And slowly, as this unlikely pair learn more about each other, a friendship develops and eventually prompts Callum to share his intimate diaries with Will, asking him, as he does so, to write his story. Like Mein Soldat, Callum’s Will has beautifully written characters, which both King and Small bring to vivid life. Their performances are wonderfully nuanced and make the most of a script packed full of dry wit, suffering, compassion and the need for human beings to connect. It’s a superb new play and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.
BIRDMAN: Set in America in the late 1800s, Marc Kay’s new one-hander, Birdman, follows the exploits of Augustus St John Merriweather (Adam Doré), a young man who enjoys the challenge of parting people from their money. With the advent of motor vehicles and steam trains, he believes he might just have the best idea for a con ever – getting people to invest in a plane.
His idea is to get as much cash as possible from ‘investors’ and then he and his sister, Rebecca, will leave Boston and head to the bright lights of New York City. When, however, Rebecca leaves him because she no longer wishes to con people, it leaves Augustus distraught, angry and determined to prove her wrong.
Doré plays the role brilliantly, showing Augustus as confident and charismatic, frustrated and even frightened as he embarks on a new path – that of a law abiding man. Kay is also to be congratulated on his attention to detail in the props used in the production, which is a fabulous new South African work.
PRODIGAL: Tim Redpath is one of the most chameleon-like performers I’ve ever seen on stage. On a stage bare except for two drama boxes, he brings to life every character in Lorraine Knox’s powerful one-hander, Prodigal. Using just subtle changes in facial expression, gait and stance, he plays, amongst others the vice-principal of St Bart’s Boys’ Academy, a Xhosa nanny, a smarmy estate agent, a vicious gang boss and the hero of the piece, Luke.
Suspended from school for helping his best mate to beat up a young black pupil, Luke, a farmer’s son from the Eastern Cape, decides he’d rather head to Johannesburg and find work than return to school. It’s a decision which will ultimately have tragic consequences.
Luke finds himself employed by Joe, an Italian restaurateur with a sideline in delivering drugs. Luke is his new delivery boy and to begin with all goes well. Rolling in cash he’s soon buying cars and homes and strutting around the city. But everything comes crashing down when he’s hijacked while delivering a package for gang boss, Samir. Prodigal is a tour de force and one of those plays you simply have to see. There’s a chance it might be heading to the Midlands. If it does, don’t miss it.
RUMPLESTILTSKIN: Peter Court’s Rumplestiltskin is a delightful Gothic piece – and its staging at the festival gives a new meaning to ‘the show must go on’. The puppets used in the play were stolen just days before the festival, forcing Court and his Creative Madness partner, Bryan Hiles, to give some older puppets a make-over. But, unless you happened to be in the know, you wouldn’t have been any the wiser.
Court, Hiles and Liesl Coppin play evil Rumplestiltskin, the boastful Miller, his daughter, a mute girl, the prince, the king and queen, and a couple of bumbling guards in this re-telling of the Brothers Grimm fairytale about a little man with a twisted soul, misshapen body and a taste for children. Court has given the well-known tale a few twists, but the essential elements of the story of the lovely Miller’s daughter forced to spin straw into gold and the little man who helps her, for a price, remain.
Rumplestiltskin, which uses both marionettes, masks and some very clever props to tell the story, is children’s theatre of the highest order. Just one note of caution – it’s probably suited to slightly older children and is not for little ones with a nervous disposition. - Estelle Sinkins
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