(Gideon Lombard)
If this show ever returns to our sleepy province, I highly
recommend that you cancel all your plans and prioritise a viewing of this remarkable
work. (Review by Luke Holder)
It is always with an enormous sense of expectation (and
trepidation) that I book to see an entirely Afrikaans-language production here
in KZN. Die Reuk van Appels was the
first ticket I booked for the festival this year, as I recalled what a lasting
impression the original novel had had on me as a young man struggling with his
own cultural identity in a changing South Africa.
Following a national tour and sold out performances, this
Naledi, Fleur du Cap and kykNET FIESTA Theatre Award-winning show, starring
Gideon Lombard and directed by Lara Bye, played to full and appreciative,
largely Afrikaans-speaking, houses at the Hilton Festival this year. Adapted
from the acclaimed 1993 debut novel by Mark Behr, Die Reuk van Appels tells the uniquely South African coming-of-age
story of Marnus Erasmus, the 11 year-old son of a South African Defence Force
General, and the events surrounding a terrible trauma that he bears witness to.
Lombard shines in this one-man tour-de-force, and transports the audience to a time when the
Afrikaner nation were at the height of their power in South Africa, evidenced
not only in the politics of the 1970s, but also in the social and cultural
aspects of family life and entitlement. Although not overtly political in it
thematic concern, Die Reuk van Appels
certainly exploits this profound cultural appropriation in its exploration of
familial structures and the role of a powerful patriarchy. While Marnus plays
with his best friend Frikkie, the country wages war against non-white citizens,
Angola and itself.
The simple set (a chair, hat, spinning top and water bottle)
is sensitively and beautifully lit, and the use of shadow and perfectly positioned
gobos enhance the dramatic content of the narrative immensely. Interwoven in
the text, and to allow transitions between scenes and to denote passages of
time, are authentic recordings of radio broadcasts and political announcements
from the era, as well as actual recordings of radio interactions between white
Afrikaans soldiers engaged in combat on the border.
Without revealing the shocking denouement, it is enough to
say that the desperately thin veneer of civility that so often veils people of
influence is ripped apart by the grotesque and brutal behaviour of a father
whose entire life is meaningless and fraudulent. The impact on young Marnus is
poignant and profound; the effect on the audience is both intoxicating and
repulsive.
If this show ever returns to our sleepy province, I highly
recommend that you cancel all your plans and prioritise a viewing of this remarkable
work. Please note that the production is rated 16, and contains nudity and
profanity. Huge respect must be afforded the organisers of the Hilton Festival
for taking a risk with Afrikaans drama, and I sincerely hope that this trend
will continue in the future. – Luke Holder
Posts
