REwind A Cantata

“It is not the TRC cantata!” composer Philip Miller asserts firmly. He wants to put a misperception straight. Miller, known for his music for the films of artist William Kentridge, describes his latest work, REwind, as a personal artistic act. It would be insincere for any artist to pretend otherwise. Nobody can write the TRC cantata. To produce as art a statement of political representivity is a fundamentally flawed concept. Miller is unhappy with the way the M&G reported on his endeavor earlier this year – which he felt argued that there was something ethically wrong with producing art from the pain of the testimony. His criticism is valid. Great art is pain; art is one of the ways humanity deals with it. “Was Picasso wrong to paint Guernica?” he asks, prosecuting the politically correct argument to its absurd conclusion. What Miller has done is to talk to every one of the survivors whose recorded testimony “given in a very different context” forms part of the cantata, replayed in rhythmic repetitions. They all gave their permission, freely and gladly. Eunice Miya (a mother of one of the Guguletu 7) asked at her hearing, more than ten years ago, that something be done to commemorate her son. Nothing has materialized. Miller says she was glad to hear that the cantata commemorates him. Opening with a powerful choral version of the protest song Siyaya, the cantata is performed by the Sontonga Quartet – unfortunately their final performance before they disband, and the Cape Town Opera Vocal Ensemble. The soloists are Fikile Mvinjelwa, Zanele Gumede, Kimmie Skota and Arthur Swan. A particularly chilling section uses Jeff Benzien’s voice, methodically describing – “as if he were baking a cake” as Miller puts it – how he tortured people with the wet bag method. The cantata concludes with a bitterly ironical piece, Who’s laughing?, using the voice of PW Botha. As Miller’s idea originally came from a Chilean cantata about their national reconciliation, the recent death of Augusto Pinochet, another president who got away with a brutally repressive regime, seems appropriate.

December 16, 2006 | Tags: | Comments Closed

The Most Amazing Show

Certain unique, comedic talents, you either get or you don’t. The legendary Goon Show is a case in point. Though seldom appealing to duller souls, they would have both ordinary and exceptionally intelligent people either rolling in the aisles or shaking their heads from boredom. The Most Amazing Show (TMAS) with its two homegrown goons, Corne and Twakkie, is another such instance; though thanks to copious, gratuitous buffoonery, it’s less restricted in its appeal to the dimmer wits. Unlike the Goons, with their remarkably clever use of language and their ability to exploit the medium of radio in truly groundbreaking ways, the appeal of TMAS is not as easily explained. They also use eccentric voices and peculiar mannerisms of speech, which until you have had time to tune in, make much of the dialogue and semantic jests utterly unintelligible. The humour is often puerile, but to some extent, so are belly laughs by nature. It’s a clown act, and as such, audiences should go prepared to participate in the game. Well aware of these two performers’ abilities, their subversive use of satire – targeting Jacob Zuma and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang this time – falls short of expectation, dissolving rapidly into little more than screwball antics. One sketch almost redeems the evening; this is when Corne (Louw Venter), and especially Twakkie (Rob van Vuuren), clamber over audience members in the auditorium, hugging and kissing and expressing their love. This is the direct opposite of the comedy of many of our popular comedians, notably slapstick Leon Schuster, who flourish on the comedy of pain and humiliation. For this, we love them. For the rest, many of us wag our heads bemusedly.

December 8, 2006 | Tags: , | Comments Closed

Frank ‘n Stein (Kalk Bay Theatre)

Adrian Collins and Nicholas Pauling
After a couple of short successful runs at the Intimate, young actors, Nic Pauling and Adrian Collins, have transferred their comic two-hander Frank ’n Stein to the Kalk Bay Theatre. Charm goes a long way in making this light-hearted, dinner theatre entertainment work. It is foremost a worthwhile reminder of the vital role independent theatres can play, not only in providing desperately needed space for new work, but as in this case, giving actors the opportunity to mature early in their careers. Frank ’n Stein is a suitable piece, demonstrating how physical theatre can transpose a movie, and be as entertaining. Young director Greg Karvellas successfully keeps Collins and Pauling from hamming it up, as they enact – virtually cut for cut – the unforgettable classic 1931 Frankenstein film directed by James Whale – himself immortalised in Gods and Monsters. A weakness in the original film, and problematic here too, is that the subplot involving the rival love of Victor Moritz for Dr Frankenstein’s sweetheart, Elizabeth, is unsustainable. A similar spoof seen earlier this year in Cape Town was The Sinking of the Titanic by the veteran British comic duo Kesselofski and Fiske. It would be instructive for Karvellas and his players to see. The British script was more ambitious –commenting on the Titanic tragedy in its political and social dimensions, just as Gods and Monsters dissects the personal meaning of the monster. Pauling and Collins are also less successful in differentiating their natures as performers from one another. They are too similar, though the attempt is made to stooge Collins. It doesn’t quite work, as he clearly possesses an original performance intelligence that makes him the more interesting of the two to watch in this context. Audiences should look out for both actors when they appear soon in Romeo and Juliet, the next annual Shakespeare at Maynardville.

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