(David Dennis, Fezile Mpela and Fiona Ramsay. Photo: Ruphin Coudyzer FPPSA)
Review of production at the Witness Hilton
Arts Festival by Caroline Smart
What an incredible production! When you
walk into the theatre, Denis Hutchinson’s masterpiece of a set places you in
the smoky chaos of a humble house in the middle of a war zone. There is a
double bed on bricks, a temperamental old-fashioned toilet, an old stove and a
table with a few chairs. Hutchinson’s lighting design is excellent and Mark
Malherbe’s sound design with its background of bombs – seemingly uncomfortably
close at hand - adds to the atmosphere. Jemma Kahn’s costume design
is perfect for this scenario.
Two bodies lie – seemingly dead - in the muddle
but they slowly pull themselves to their feet. They are Lavana (an almost
unrecognisable Fiona Ramsay) and Julak (a bespectacled doddery David Dennis). Their
life isn’t easy. Their son went to war and Lavana refuses to move until he
comes back, even though the couple’s lives are in serious danger.
They occupy themselves with finding bodies and
bringing them home where they carefully remove their identity tags and record
them in a list. They then take the bodies and bury them, the idea being to help
relatives to be reunited with their deceased loved ones, once the war is over. The
latest body is number 5,096.
Suddenly, there is a lull in the bombing but,
before they can relax, a man in combat gear (Fezile Mpela) bursts onto the scene
and starts dividing the house up. It seems that the boundary between the two
warring countries runs through the house and he proceeds to launch into
officious insistence on the presentation of official papers – visas, work
permits, etc. The border divides the bed as well as the body on the table!
There is much humour in this well-designed comment
on border control bureaucracy which is taken to lunatic lengths of absurdity!
Considered one of the world’s leading
contemporary playwrights, Ariel Dorfman has created a fascinating script – in which
he has fashioned a new language – and this comes to vigorous and energetic life
in the hands of director Greg Homann. With David Dennis, Fiona Ramsay and
Fezile Mpela in the cast, audiences can be assured of impeccable articulation –
every consonant clear, not even the slightest nuance of dialogue lost. –
Caroline Smart