NAF DAY #5: JULY 4 , 2012

artSMart Editor Caroline Smart reports from Grahamstown at the National Arts Festival

As per the weather forecast, we all prepared to hunker down for the threatened drop in temperature as clouds started building up on the horizon. In fact, standing outside the Alec Mullins Hall waiting for the doors to open I was seriously considering ducking off home rather than risk standing in the cold and wet and making things worse after a bout of flu and laryngitis!

Moffie - Bailey Snyman’s new work which resulted from his winning the 2012 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance – is an intensely moving and often fiercely aggressive work. The tender moments are exquisite and the violence is hard-hitting. The set design added to the toughness of the work with camouflage netting hanging from the ceiling and falling down the back wall into piles on the stage floor. Cleverly lit by Carol Preston, the shadow of the netting bounced onto the walls of the venue as if trapping us all in its grasp. The production opens with an evocative lighting effect of a butterfly hovering over the stage.

Sifiso Sikhakhane has reviewed this production for artSMart and I concur with his comments, particularly with regard to the quality of the sound. I would have liked to have heard the commandant yelling at his troops as what he said seemed important but he was drowned by the backing track. I also agree with Sifiso that Snyman tried to do too much with a subject that was already a challenge without his bringing a US debate into the picture. I think some judicious pruning would make a lot of difference to the work’s impact.

However, all congratulations to choreographer and dancers for a very fine and memorable performance. One thing that blew me away was a fairly long sequence when the couples were kissing – as in lips seemingly totally locked together – and doing some fairly hectic movement about the stage at the same time. How on earth were they able to breathe efficiently?

We came out of the theatre expecting rain – at worst, hail, sleet or snow – only to find that the skies were clear and the sun was still shining. I think the Festival gods were working on overtime!

If Moffie wasn’t enough dramatic emotion for one day, my next production certainly raised the bar on dramatic power and superb performances. Mies Julie, one of the true highlights of the festival for me, was presented by the Baxter Theatre Centre and the South African State Theatre in association with the National Arts Festival. This powerful piece by Yael Farber is an adaptation of Strindberg’s classic Miss Julie which she has set in the remote Eastern Cape Karoo.

A soundscape underscores the whole production composed and performed by Daniel and Matthew Pencer with Thandiwe Nofirst Lungisa adding authentic Xhosa music and that disturbing throat-singing. All of this added to the intensity of the drama.

The performances by Hilda Cronje (Mies Julie), Bongile Mantsai (John, farm labourer) and Thoko Ntshinga (John’s mother Christine who works as a domestic for Mies Julie’s father) were superb and completely riveting. This production is rated 16 and over and some aggressive sex is involved. It is to Cronje and Mantsai’s credit that – despite being no more than six feet away from them in the audience – I felt totally drawn into their conflict without being overpowered by it.

Placing the production in current times, as opposed to Strindberg’s 1874, this John is a highly articulate well-read young man even though he’s a labourer. He’s also burning with the revolutionary energy that is boiling in the compound – it doesn’t need much to fan the flames. Mies Julie is the damaged result of a mother who commited suicide and an abusive father. Still a virgin, she is bored and ready for any kind of action – a sexual time-bomb ready to blow. Christine is helpless to do anything other than watch matters take their course. If this production comes your way, don’t miss it. But be warned, it’s powerful! – Caroline Smart