The Chilli Boy after numerous sold out seasons in Durban and Johannesburg was the break-through production for writer Geraldine Naidoo and performer Matthew Ribnick (now her husband). First staged in 2002, it finally comes to Cape Town encouraged by Ribnick and Naidoo’s extraordinary success last year at the Baxter with their more recent creation Hoot. Ironically, this has meant it arrives actually at something of a disadvantage.
Both are humorous, one-man shows with well-crafted scripts, slickly performed and original in conception. This time, the rather delicious scenario revolves around the chilli boy, a white gangster called Troy, who is unexpectedly possessed by the reincarnated spirit of an old Indian woman with family matters to set right on earth.
Unfortunately, The Chilli Boy, from a critic’s point of view, appears rather obviously to be the artistic antecedent of Hoot. Both are exercises in the humour of recognisability, but with Hoot Ribnick and Naidoo had moved on to depict fresh characters we rarely see portrayed on our stages. It also had sharp commentary on the here and now of South Africa. Chilli Boy feels comparatively dated and the stereotyping stale with its lower-class, white mother, the Joburg gangsters – Greeks and ‘Lebs’ – and its caricature of Indian machismo.
I fear this time Naidoo and Ribnick may face some disappointment with Cape Town and visa versa. The material is not exotic enough – as it would be for say a London audience – and the humour, the characters and their vernacular are familiar yet somewhat at a remove from local taste. Cape Town should look forward to their post-Hoot phase.
