(Mbulelo
Grootboom, Terry Norton and Kertrice Maitisa, Picture: Bronwyn
Lloyd)
Splendid performance from Mbulelo Grootboom
in Mike van Graan play. (Review by Caroline Smart)
Directed by Lara Bye, Terry Norton,
Kertrice Maitisa and Mbulelo Grootboom do full justice to Mike van Graan’s incisive
and ironic writing in Rainbow Scars
which appeared on the National Arts Festival along with several of his other
plays.
In 1994 at the birth of the “Rainbow
Nation”, Angela Cameron (Terry Norton) did what she felt was the right thing to
do in the spirit of reconciliation and adopted the daughter of her late
domestic worker.
Rainbow
Scars is set in 2012 and Lindiwe (Kertrice Maitisa)
is now in her matric year. Their lives are closely intertwined as Angela’s
husband is away, serving a jail sentence for fraud. Comfortably seated on the
couch working on their laptops, the rapport between mother and daughter is
warm, friendly and full of deliciously amusing moments. There is much teasing
on both sides and it’s almost a relationship between sisters rather than that
of an older woman and a young girl.
Their comfortable existence is shattered by
the arrival into their lives of Lindiwe’s cousin, Sicelo (Mbulelo Grootboom).
Sicelo – who we have seen in spotlight on a
side stage since the beginning of the play as he continually pleads for a job –
is out of work, out of money and of patience. He maintains he is innocent of a
crime for which he has been awaiting trial for 14 months and his inner rage is
about to explode. This is a splendid performance from Grootboom which reaches
impressive heights during his bursts of anger.
He reminds Lindiwe that she has a
biological family and her aunt is dying and wants to speak to her. He hurls
insults at her, claiming that she is now too “white” to care about her past.
Lindiwe now finds herself at a crossroads,
a struggle with her identity. I understand these emotions. At the age of 60
when I discovered that I was adopted, I had the maturity (I hope) to deal with the
situation sensibly and pragmatically but I can see how confusion, divided
loyalties and unsettlement can take over. Van Graan handles this process with
sensitivity and poignancy.
Rainbow
Scars is an excellent production from all aspects
and definitely deserves seeing if it comes your way. – Caroline Smart
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