(Andre Jacobs & Mbulelo Grootboom)
Review of the production at the 2012
Witness Hilton Art Festival by Caroline Smart
Mike van
Graan’s three-hander Just Business
was first
staged as Hostile Takeover by the
Market Theatre on the National Arts Festival’s Main Programme in 2006. Now substantially
rewritten, it still resounds – as its publicity material says – as a scathing,
provocative satire on the economic practices and associated morality of the
“New South Africa”.
Marcel Meyer’s set impresses as you walk into the Grindrod Bank Theatre.
There are three platforms with the centre one containing a sunken area which turns
out to be a grave. Dominating the theatre space is a huge billboard containing
the image of a pair of elegant legs clad in glamorous high-heeled sandals, which
continues onto the floor as belonging to the scantily-dressed body of a woman.
This refers to the “girlie” club run by Hannes van Wyk, a slippery former
employee in the National Party government’s Foreign Affairs Department.
Van Wyk has incurred the interest of BEE-conscious, Johnny Mabuso and
his Chinese partners who want to take over his business – therefore he needs to
be removed. Mabuso spends much time with his blow-up sex doll, treating it as a
live consort. There is a very amusing scene when he explains to her the make-up
of a wine list.
Van Wyk is now digging his own grave with a gun pointed at his head by a
large man in black, Mr September (Kurt Egelhof). Mr September is a former
freedom-fighter and considers himself a pragmatic fellow. His job as a hitman –
he doesn’t charge VAT and even offers different rates - is just a means to an
end and he wants to get on with this commission and move onto the next as
quickly as possible.
However, Mr September hasn’t reckoned on van Wyk’s gift of the gab - or his
long-term capacity to get out of trouble - so he finds himself drawn into
analytical conversation aimed at changing his mind.
As in the first version of this play, van Graan pulls no punches in his
commentary about greed and enrichment in post-1994 South Africa.
Directed by Fred Abrahamse, Kurt Egelhof, Andre Jacobs and Mbulelo
Grootboom put in excellent performances, keeping the action tight and
compelling and doing fine justice to the humour content. The tables are
continually turned in this thought-provoking play – confidences are shared
while deals are made and broken. Don’t miss it, if it comes to a theatre near
you! Just be warned that the play contains strong language and is not
recommended for sensitive patrons or those under 16. – Caroline Smart
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