South African theatre is awash with one-man brilliance much of it indebted to what one might call the school of Andrew Buckland. The format is typically a story related as the actor crisscrosses changing seamlessly between multiple characters, as opposed to staying in a single character or a revue series of monologues. Mime and sometimes the ingenious synecdochical use of a few props conjure up changing scenes and situations. On occasion, two such performers combine their skills as in Rob van Vuuren and James Cairns Brother Number.
Such shows demand extraordinary skills. A soloist needs to be a virtuoso, the character transitions choreographed and total. Each role keenly observed and expressed in the changing register and trick of the voice together with the physical transformation of the body, should have the power behind it to stand alone. If the actor opts to cartoon, he must still convince.
The script needs to be layered; the plot intriguing; the moral choices complex; the characters inviting pathos – subtle and not stereotyped; and the overall trajectory of the journey emotionally transformative.
Our enjoyment of such work resides in the theatricality of the pursuit and watching the virtuosity of the performer. Physical theatre is as imaginative as it is physical and of necessity, it must fully engage our imaginations. Scott Sparrow’s metafictional Performers Travel Guide is a good example. Not all stories or subjects are as suitable for treatment in this manner. It is also a hopelessly overtraded genre.
Unfortunately, Tim Redpath’s Prodigal is still adolescent in most departments outlined above. Lorraine Knox’s awkward, often-forced rhetorical script has many glaring weaknesses too painful to enumerate here, but without this fundamental in place, little else can follow.
