(Tshepo Maise as Sam,
Reggie Davidson as Harold & Thando Mzimela as Willie in “Master Harold...
and the boys”)
Extremely commendable project by director Luke Holder
to showcase the individual capacities of highly talented pupils. (Review by Caroline
Smart)
Westville Boys High School should be rightfully proud
of Luke Holder, who is head of Performing Arts at the school. He is a highly
accomplished musician/musical director and the recent South African Short Play
Festival proved that he is an excellent drama director.
While Westville Boys High has already done shows with
large numbers with big casts, The South African Short Play Festival, which ran
from February 13 to 16, 2019, is a first for the school and, as Holder states,
it took 12 years to convince the school’s governing body to do this. He was
seeing boys coming through with “an unbelievable level of talent” so he decided
to showcase five of the most talented matric pupils.
(Trent Lilford in
“White Men With Weapons)
He chose four productions: Master Harold... And The Boys, The Ugly Noo Noo, White Men With Weapons
and a new South African musical penned by Matric pupil Cameron Parle
entitled The Couch. They were all
performed in the well-equipped Roy Couzens Theatre and presented in
association with DALRO.
The festival was due to run for one week but the
last day was cancelled to make the
theatre available to Ian von Memerty for his Common & Class show which had had to be cancelled after its
second night following a student demonstration at the Elizabeth Sneddon
Theatre. I would also commend the pupils who were to perform on that day for
being so co-operative and agreeing to give up their show times.
(Cameron Moodie in
“The Ugly Noonoo”)
I was only able to see two productions at the festival:
The Ugly Noonoo and The Couch and if the quality of these
two productions was anything to go by, the other two must have been of the same
high standard.
Written and originally performed by Andrew Buckland, The Ugly Noonoo is about the invasion of
the Parktown Prawn in Johannesburg, a creature that is described as a cricket
that behaves like a terrorist. This is pure physical theatre and deals with
fear - fear of the tangible and intangible.
Cameron Moodie impressed with his unswerving consistency
throughout this highly demanding piece which requires the actor to take on over
20 characters. While mowing the lawn, the hero discovers a hole and is sucked
into it. He finds himself in a strange and wonderful place which seems to be
the inside of a glass bottle – it is actually the home of the Ugly Noonoos.
They are all part of the Creatures Community Congress which is about Prawn
Power – a battle against species dominance and the rights for all species. This
is a splendid tour de force
performance and Moodie makes the most of the comedy but he could do well to
work on stronger projection as many lines were lost.
(Cameron Parle as
Phillip Kruger in “The Couch”)
The Couch was an
entirely different experience. Cameron Parle, who is an actor, singer and
guitarist has created a musical “around the 7 Ages of Man”. Described as a play
with music The Couch features his original
works bar a couple of numbers. It deals with a 76 year-old bespectacled man who
is in his dressing gown in his room in the Happy Ever After Retirement Village.
A number of boxes surround a couch, side table, lamp and ottoman. A few guitars
are also in evidence.
As the play progresses, he explained that after the
death of his much-loved wife, he started to go downhill, forgetting things and
becoming a danger to himself so his son put him in the home. Each box he opens
takes him down memory lane from the time when he received a tiny guitar on his
5th birthday. Each box reveals another era with Parle graduating from
acoustic to electric guitar to suit the music – and costume – of the time. The
play could easily become over-sentimental but Parle’s sensitive and honest
handling of the subject makes the storyline relevant to many. He finishes the
play with the very eloquent and beautifully moving speech he made at his wife’s
funeral.
This was an extremely commendable project by director
Luke Holder to showcase the individual capacities of highly talented pupils and
I sincerely hope that these productions will be seen elsewhere.
For more information, contact Luke Holder at the
school on 031 267 1330 or via email lholder@wbhs.co.za – Caroline Smart
Posts
