Pietermaritzburg-born
playwright and performer Clinton Marius, who died today (February 26, 2020) in
Cape Town.
(courtesy
of sosuterbill)
The South African theatre community was
shocked and saddened at news of the death today of Pietermaritzburg-born
playwright and performer Clinton Marius, following heart surgery this morning
at Cape Town’s Groote Schuur Hospital. He was 53.
Marius, who recently relocated from Durban
to Knysna, where he and partners William Charlton-Perkins and Riaan Timson
opened the Knysna Theatre, would have turned 54 on August 20. He was airlifted
to Groote Schuur this morning for an emergency operation, following being
admitted to the ICU at a hospital in George last night.
Noted for writing many plays for children
and adults, as well as his hugely popular, long-running Lotus FM radio serial, Lollipop Lane, Marius made his first
professional appearance at the age of 12, singing the lead role in Menotti’s opera,
Amahl and the Night Visitors.
His poetry has been published
internationally, while he is also known for collections of short stories, as
well as the fictional biography of a guru, Sunshine
– The Booklet of the Biography.
His plays include the award-winning Bi#ch Stole My Doek, The Penis Monologues,
White Christmas, Sweetie Darling
and Guru. Most recently, a reworked
version of his last play, the comedy-drama Bigly
Yuge, was staged over the 2019
festive season at Durban’s Playhouse Loft.
In 2002, reports Wikipedia, Marius directed
Jonathan Cumming’s The Gladiator at
the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, and co-ordinated A Slice of Madness, a season of theatre
in Durban in which he appeared in David Campton’s Mutatis Mutandis.
In January 2003 he appeared at the KwaSuka
Theatre in The Divine Child, and in
April 2003 he founded the annual Fools Awards in recognition of arts
practitioners’ contributions in KwaZulu-Natal. The awards were discontinued
some years ago.
Marius’s performance alongside Greig
Coetzee in Kobus Moolman’s Soldier Boy,
winner of the BBC worldwide radio drama competition, was broadcast
internationally.
Marius’s highly successful one-man show, Uncut – The Penis Monologues, directed
by Garth Anderson, premiered in Durban in September 2003 before starting a
successful national tour.
Marius also performed in his stage drama, Vergissmeinnicht (Farm of Secrets), at
the 2003 National Arts Festival. This was followed by the New Age send-up, Guru, and the one-man comedy Thank You Very Much, a satire about
Hollywood and celebrities.
His work was profiled in the Children’s
Theatre Festival at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) in 2012, when six
of his productions for the young were performed by students. These included The Magical Flea Circus, iPuppeti and The Calf With No Name.
Marius was known for his clever wordplay
and keen sense of humour. The South African theatre scene is poorer for his
absence.
Funeral plans have yet to be finalised. –
Billy Suter
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