If you have been out of South African for a while,
this is a clever history of where we are today. (Review by Caroline Smart)
I was so hugely impressed when I
first saw Daniel Mpilo Richards in Mike van Graan’s Pay Back the Curry, with original direction by Rob van Vuuren, at
the Hilton Arts Festival in 2016 that he has been the top of my booking list
ever since.
Richards has won two Naledi Theatre
Awards and a Standard Bank Ovation Award and this year he took a break from his
film studies in Britain to perform at the 2019 Festival in a show titled Quantitative
Teasing. It was a delight to enjoy once
again sketches from State Fracture
and Land Acts.
We revisit Derek Hanekom, the tour
guide from Rainbow Nation Tours whose job it is to encourage the visitors to
South Africa to invest in the country. He promises they can even see the
leopard at Nkandla. The process is hilarious as he answers questions from the
group. He proudly notes that the Table Mountain cable car in Cape Town is the
only car that hasn’t been hijacked. He explains that they will be accompanied
by the police and another security group – whose job is to look after the
police!
Richards is disarming and
fast-talking. He is extremely versatile, a good mover and has an excellent
command of accents. One highly amusing number sees him taking Old MacDonald Has a Farm and singing it a la former Prime Minister John Vorster, the late Nelson Mandela as
well as Cyril Ramaphosa.
Another fun number is immediately
recognisable as soon as he assumes a chicken posture. He’s a chicken activist
and energetically promoting chicken rights.
Accompanying himself on the guitar,
he changes Hallelujah to Hello, Looters! He also sends up the
word “privilege” and pulls it apart letter by letter. The section dealing with
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet set in
the Cape Flats is hilarious. He plays three people – a black Romeo, a Cape
Coloured Juliet and a white director.
Another section sees him as an
Aborigine believing that the Australian government can help the genocide
situation by assisting black South Africans to relocate to Australia!
A special message to men urging them
to live life in peace with Imagine All
the People was beautifully handled.
If you have been out of South
African for a while, this is a clever history of where we are today. If you
haven’t moved out of the country, you’ll appreciate the cleverness of Quantitative Teasing even more! –
Caroline Smart
For more information on the Hilton
Arts Festival visit www.hiltonfestival.co.za
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