(Liesl Coppin & Ntando Mncube. Pic: Val Adamson)
Contortions of conversations and
confrontations excellently handled by the two member cast. (Review by Caroline
Smart)
It was an interesting experience last
evening to attend a drama in the Durban University of Technology’s Arthur Smith
Hall on the DUT City Campus. I can’t remember when I last saw a theatre work in
this comfortable auditorium. The presentation is made all the more auspicious
as DUT is hosting the first South African professional premiere of Lewis
Nkosi’s arguably most famous work for the stage, the riveting two-hander, The Black Psychiatrist.
Bryan Hiles’s set design grabs your attention
from the moment you walk in. The waving crinkly mirror-effect on the high walls
bordered by cell-like windows eventually serves to “mirror” the contortions of
the conversations and confrontations that lie ahead. Congratulations to
lighting designer Mthandazo Mofokeng for what must have been a challenging
technical achievement!
In director Debbie Lutge’s pre-publicity,
she describes The Black Psychiatrist as
“a racy play that haunts, that encases ANC core values, that features politics
but embraces Ubuntu, a play for high school and college learners, a play by a
South African literary giant. It is akin to taking the history of the struggle
and the shifting balance of power and synergizing these values within
socio-culturally constructed roles that embrace race and gender all within a
framework with surprising twists and turns that positions the psycho analytical
gaze both without and within.”
She has chosen a strong cast – both of them
DUT graduates - to handle the excellent and multi-layered script with its many
twists and turns.
The setting is a psychiatrist’s office in England.
Dr Dan Kerry is calmly working at his desk when the door is flung open and in
strides Mrs Gloria Gresham. All long legs, high heels, skin-tight and ultra-short
flaming red dress, she is flaunting desire personified. She proceeds to blow
his calm life apart as she alternatively hurls insults, snaps at him for not
remembering her or plays for his sympathy - all the while draping herself
seductively across his desk or flagrantly flaunting herself sexually on his
respectable couch.
Very fine performances come from Liesl
Coppin and Ntando Mncube. However, while Coppin’s articulation is impeccable,
Mncube often gets swept up with dramatic emotion and we lose the sense of
valuable text.
The production has its own soundscape with
an original musical composition and arrangement by DUT Drama and Production
Studies Vocal Coach and Instrumentalist Madlen Tzankova and Richardt Wissink.
An acclaimed South African writer, academic and literary
critic, Lewis Nkosi is best known among the younger generation for his school set book Mating Birds. He grew up in Chesterville in Durban and first studied at
ML Sultan. His first job was as a reporter for Ilanga lase Natal. His works were banned under the Suppression of Communism Act, and
he faced severe restrictions as a writer. He received a Neiman scholarship from
Harvard University in the US to pursue his studies. He died in September, 2010. The Durban University of Technology
conferred a posthumous honorary Doctor of Technology Degree in Arts and Design
on him in recognition of his significant contributions as a prolific and
profound South African writer and essayist last year.
There is one more performance of The Black Psychiatrist tonight (April 30)
at 19h00 at the Arthur Smith Hall, DUT City Campus, courtesy of DALRO. The play
runs for an hour Tickets R35 booked via Mthandazom@dut.ac.za
or on 031 373 2532. – Caroline Smart
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