(Greig Coetzee in "White Men with Weapons)One of Durban’s favourite writers / actors / directors – Greig Coetzee, now based in London - returns to KZN for a short season of two of his best loved one-handers: White Men With Weapons and Johnny Boskak is Feeling Funny which will be staged at the Catalina for a short season in February.
White Men with Weapons won a fleet of national and international awards including two awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, and responds to Coetzee’s time as a military conscript in the old South African Defence Force. It became an iconic production voicing the challenges, frustrations and absurdities of serving in the SADF. A series of a dozen vignettes featuring some of the characters familiar to conscripts: a corporal from hell, a drug-crazed Durban Rambo and an Anglican Chaplain with Tutu-phobia are just three of the many creatures which takes audiences into the heart of South Africa’s forgotten wars. And along the way Nelson Mandela walks free, forcing these punch-drunk, blood-shot soldiers to face their final battle as the sun rises on a new country
In its review, the Mail and Guardian wrote: ‘Hilarious... swaps characters like a chameleon on cocaine’
White Men with Weapons alternates with another acclaimed Coetzee one-hander: Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny which tells of a hard-hitting road trip from hell, performed in rhyming couplets.
Combining Shakespearean verse and American Rap to write a South African Natural Born Killers using Johannesburg slang, and you might come close to Greig Coetzee's Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny. It’s a love story, a quest for faith and a car chase that takes the audience across South Africa from Durban to Secunda to Hillbrow to Hell and back again. “This is a tragicomedy about a whitey and his bubblegum, lip-gloss, kick-arse, troublesome cherry.”
Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny is performed with veteran Durban guitarist, Syd Kitchen.
Performances are as follows: White Men with Weapons on February 4 at 20h00 and February 5 at 18h00. Johnny Boskak Is Feeling Funny on February 3 at 20h00, February 4 at 18h00, February 5 at 20h00 and February 6 at 18h00. Bookings and information through the Catalina Theatre on 031 305 6889. Also visit http://www.greigcoetzee.com/white-men-with-weapons.html and http://www.greigcoetzee.com/johnny-boskak-is-feeling-funny.html
Greig Coetzee will take the two productions to the Hexagon Theatre in Pietermaritzburg on February 11 and 12. Bookings on 033 260 5537 or e-mail hexagon@ukzn.ac.za
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