Photo: Jesse Kramer
In 2005, when Harold Pinter (1930-2008) belatedly received the Nobel Prize for literature, his work was at the time embarrassingly absent from the London stage. Since the award, enthusiasm has renewed for his early plays in his hometown, where one has seen stunning revivals of The Birthday Party, The Hothouse and A Slight Ache among others.
Happily for Cape Town, The Mechanicals, “pioneering the resurrection of repertory theatre”, have followed suit. In their ‘British Lines’ season they had a crack at The Birthday Party, and seem to have nailed The Dumb Waiter (premiered 1960), Pinter’s absurd yet riveting black comedy about two working class hit men awaiting orders (those who have seen Martin McDonagh’s film In Bruges will experience some déjà vu).
The hired guns discover a dumb waiter in their room; trap-like, one expects it at any moment to guillotine off one of their hands. When a series of peculiar requests for food arrive via the small lift, the two paranoid men desperately try to make sense of their situation. It’s a study in being at the butt end of arbitrary instruction and malevolent power.
Directed by Luke Ellenbogen, Guy de Lancey’s taciturn Ben, for whom murder is all in a day’s work, is particularly well-observed. Nicholas Pauling is suitably cast as the nervous, restless, malcontent junior, Gus. On opening night the actors didn’t always trust the script as implicitly as they should, but overall we are most fortunate to have the opportunity to see Pinter’s extraordinary talent this well served.
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As with his Twelfth Night four years ago, director Geoffrey Hyland has once again delivered the goods for Maynardville’s annual Shakespeare. His production of As You Like It is cheerful, light-hearted, funny and wholly appropriate for an evening diversion at this open air theatre. It will also go down well with schools, which is a vital constituency here.
Over the years Hyland has found an answer to staging Shakespeare in contemporary South Africa. In particular, when exercising his vision of the play, he does not impinge upon the work. He allows it to speak for itself without forcing too narrow a reading. Instead he uses multiple references as aperçus to the text. The challenge is to keep these cohesive and not shambolic. The fantastical world of As You Like It gives him this license. Thus we have hippy communes in the forests of Arden, African spirits and didgeridoo sounds; intuitive details that are not limitiary but apposite.
Many of the stalwart Maynardville actors are in the current production of The Tempest and Hyland has done well with a youthful cast; refreshing in this undemanding comedy, though some of the over-excited and peculiar squealing sounds from the cast lower the tone.
The night belongs to Guy de Lancey as Jacques, the melancholic traveller, who delivers all his speeches including “All the world’s a stage” with great finesse. Much of the comedy is carried by Mark Elderkin (Touchstone) who deserves to be singled out for his uncanny comic timing, and the subtlety he displays within an over-the-top interpretation of the character.
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