I Am My Own Wife (Baxter Studio)

Photo: Harold Guess

Photo: Harold Guess

Born in 1928 in Berlin, the boy Lothar Berfelde would become Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, both iconic “beloved Charlotte” and also the city’s “most notorious transvestite”. Dressing as a woman and taking male lovers, Charlotte was rather pleased with the organs nature had provided, and never seriously embarked on physical sexual reassignment.

Her remarkable life as related in Doug Wright’s 2004 Pulitzer prize-winning one-person drama, I Am My Own Wife, is an inspirational story of the courage of one individual to defend their integrity against paternal tyranny, totalitarian regimes, the narrow social conventions of polite society and eventually trial by media. She survived with wry humour both the Nazi SS and the East German Stasi police, though not without damage.

Originator of the Gründerzeitmuseum and recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz, she was accused in the 1990s of having collaborated with the former regime. The controversy surrounding her later years and the difficulties this presented for her hero-worshipping biographer, successfully transform the script from yet-another ‘biopic’ into a riveting drama.

Dressed in only a plain black dress with a single string of pearls, Jeremy Crutchley’s performance is measured, skilfully paced, perfectly gauged, remarkably controlled and authentically understated. He embodies all the characters in Charlotte’s life consummately. His German, American-German and American accents are almost flawless. As Charlotte, Crutchley is transfigured, as convincing as Sean Penn’s Harvey Milk in the recent film.

November 12, 2009 | Tags: | Comments Closed

Merchant of Venice (Maynardville)

The Merchant of Venice is an anti-Semitic play in which Shylock, the Jew, is an avaricious, cunning and heartless devil. Even his own daughter deserts him to become a Christian. The famous speech “Hath not a Jew eyes?…If you prick us, do we not bleed?” is easily played to opposite effect and was so construed until the late 19th century. Furthermore, the comedy, which requires a happy ending, depends upon this villainous reading.

However, the durability of Shakespeare arises from his characters containing sufficient ambiguity to allow for divergent interpretations. There is enough in Shylock for a skilful actor to inveigle a sympathetic portrayal mitigating the prejudice the play promotes. And Jeremy Crutchley is everything one wants in such a Shylock. His performance is studied, nuanced and moving, and his Shylock’s humiliation a masterclass in achieving dramatic impact. Graham Weir, as the merchant Antonio, is a perfect counterpart, as refined and controlled. The two play exceptionally well off one another.

In countering the anti-Semitism a director may also elect to recontextualise the play for instance in 1943 during the Shoah, as Roy Sargeant has, and many modern productions now do. Sargeant also has Tubal, a Jew and friend of Shylock, prominently present in the court leaving as if disapproving of Shylock, making the latter’s merciless obduracy the actions of an individual not the race. There are no such directions in Shakespeare’s text; Tubal is last mentioned in Act 3. Sargeant also adds a final scene with swastika banners in which German soldiers pin the yellow star to Shylock.

Ironically, the Merchant was actually staged in 1943 by the SS in Vienna to celebrate the successful deportation to death camps of all the Jews in the city. Shylock was played by Goebbels’s favourite Werner Krauss.

Merchant is supposed to be a comedy, but once the tragedy of Shylock is admitted, the comedy collapses. Shylock’s humiliation all but ends the play; for what do we now care about the workings out of petty love intrigues amongst a bunch of selfish and vain Fascists. This fault line is exacerbated by the vast gap between Crutchley and Weir’s naturalism, and the uninspiring leads (Clayton Boyd as Bassanio and Tessa Jubber as Portia) with their supporting cast who with a few exceptions (such as John Caviggia) are over the top, vulgarised, comic mummers. The tragedy of Shylock is a must-see; the comedy of the Merchant hard going.

January 25, 2008 | Tags: , , , | Comments Closed

Doubt (Baxter)

doubt

Unfortunately, this production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt makes you wonder what all the fuss is about. A Pulitzer Prize play (2005), a veteran director and a cast that includes two of our finest actors, yet where was the ‘high drama’, the ‘mesmerizing’, ‘enthralling’, ‘gripping mystery’, as declared by every critic from the The New York Times to the Wall Street Journal? Perhaps expectations were raised too high; perhaps it was a premature opening night, but no one can seriously claim it had ‘the audience gasping’.

Set in the Bronx in 1964 in a Catholic school serving the Italian and Irish communities, the only black student (who we never meet) is dismissed from altar duty for drinking wine. The strict, disciplinarian principal Sister Aloysius (Sandra Prinsloo) has her suspicions raised by Sister James (Tinarie van Wyk Loots) that Father Flynn (Jeremy Crutchley) is a paedophile and was seducing this twelve-year old boy. Convinced, but without clear evidence, she proceeds against Flynn. As she puts it, in the pursuit against wrongdoing one takes a step away from God but in his service. As the script has it, we are never sure whether the real struggle is within the church itself – her actual motivation being to counter the priest’s modernising liberal influence. Certainty, we are told, is only an emotion.

For the script to work dramatically, we as audience have to constantly second-guess ourselves. The problem is that Prinsloo’s gravity trumps Crutchley’s airiness. You almost never doubt Sister Aloysius. Crutchley on the other hand exudes guilt. When at the end of the play Sister Aloysius declares how full of doubts she is, it comes as an unexpected and unsuccessful twist.

A faltering pace, stilted exchanges and static blocking, had the audience applauding the penultimate scene, mistaking it for the ending. Competence, even proficiency, but without flair, allows the drama to lapse into debate theatre. The clues in the script to the character of Sister James are not remotely matched by Van Wyk Loot’s reading of the part. Ilse Oppelt, who appears for one scene as the boy’s mother, was a welcome relief, picking up the pace, though the role of her character is deeply flawed. Accents shifted from American to Irish to South African. In fact, the leads were at their best when their accents did slip.

May 17, 2007 | Tags: , , , | Comments Closed

Betrayal (Baxter)

Andrew Buckland Susan Danford Jeremy Crutchley
When the baker’s wife is unfaithful with a prince in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, she sings some of his cleverest lyrics: “There are vows, there are ties, there are standards, there are needs, there are shouldn’ts and shoulds. Why not both instead? There’s the answer if you’re clever. Have a child for warmth and a baker for bread and a prince for whatever.”

In Harold Pinter’s Betrayal Robert (Andrew Buckland) has affairs, but is married with two children. So is his best friend Jerry (Jeremy Crutchley). Yet Jerry is also having an affair with Robert’s wife – Emma (Susan Danford). Like the baker’s wife we wonder, “Must it always be either less or more, either plain or grand, is it always ‘or’, is it never ‘and’?” Yet this isn’t a moment in the woods, they’ve been at it for seven years, even sharing a flat. Nor is it a secret. At a certain point in time, everyone knows, but not everyone knows who knows.

Echoing conventional morality, the baker’s wife concludes, “Just remember when you’ve had and ‘and’, when you’re back to ‘or’, makes the ‘or’ mean more than it did before”. Pinter is not convinced. Instead, he acknowledges how people manage the tensions around emotional security and romantic yearnings. There is no terrifying climax, no make or break confrontation. Not that there isn’t pain, jealousy, loss and anger, but when everyone is guilty of some betrayal, it almost ceases to be an accusation.

Director Lara Foot Newton has chosen shrewdly for a public largely unfamiliar with Pinter’s extensive oeuvre. Written with the clarity of a surgical light, it is today as relevant as it was in 1978.

Newton has hand-picked what is a dream cast. Buckland is subtlety personified, perfect for a sly comedy in which we laugh silently, inwardly. He could be purged of some British intonations that have become over-familiarly associated with Monty Python, but that might be part of his performance’s appeal. Audiences may need clues to the comedy. As passionate lovers, Crutchley and Danford, are an ideal match. We’re fortunate to have them both permanently back in South Africa. Together with Mannie Manim’s sensitive lighting, Patrick Curtis’s muted modern grey set is the perfect canvas for these sterling performances. Newton has allowed the work to breathe and seen to it that none of Pinter’s delicacy goes astray.

November 10, 2006 | Tags: , , , , | Comments Closed

Twelfth Night (Maynardville)

Henri Landon (disguised as Cesario) and Jeremy Crutchley (Malvolio)

At the opening last night of Maynardville’s 50th Annual Shakespeare production, the Cape Town City Council generously treated its guests to “a cocktail evening” – well, no cocktails in sight, or even a party, but the usual staid white marquee, seating at round tables, blomme, platters of deep-fried foods and a few prawns.

Though President Mbeki seems to have moved from quoting Shakespeare to Robespierre, it’s cheering to see our ANC led council take an interest in propping up Maynardville. The backstage facilities are a health hazard for the actors and the toilet facilities for the patrons hopelessly inadequate – women have to use the men’s cubicles if they are to finish by interval – “Gentlemen, please only use the urinal” – the usher martially urged us last night. Decent chairs – it’s currently unwise not to lug along your own cushions – are hopefully a priority.
The money – predictably – has been held up for two years now, but it seems there is never a financial impediment to throwing a banquet and creating a political platform, especially in an election year. I thought it an inappropriate way to celebrate the 50 years, and would have prefered the unveiling of a new ablution block.

The keynote speech or more accurately the reminiscence of a thespian, who has been away far too long to be missed and remains out of touch, read like a send-up. It recalled the opening scene of All About Eve – the presentation of the Sarah Siddon’s Award for Distinguished Achievement. The crisp voice of George Sanders as Addison deWitt entered my head in self-defence: “Being an actor he will go on speaking for some time. It is not important that you hear what he says. . .Having covered in tedious detail. . .” and no information, exhausted every possible clichéd preface to a series of irrelevant theatrical anecdotes [with indulgent laughter], his exit was applauded. At least I had a dry seat while the opening rains of Maynardville drenched the undeterred and far happier picnickers outside.

A review of the current production of Twelfth Night is scheduled for the M&G on January 27. I’ll hold off critical review until then, but will say that it gets an unequivocal thumbs up and stands as one of the best Shakespeare productions I’ve seen in South Africa for a long time. Congratulations to Geoffrey Hyland.

This year celebrates the fiftieth year since the annual Shakespeare productions started at Maynardville.

Twelfth Night remains one of the Bards best-admired comedies, together with A Midsummer Night’s Dream – the other most performed work at Maynardville – they account for ten of the past fifty productions. By contrast, the most acclaimed tragedies, Hamlet in 1964 and King Lear in 1966, were done once and never since.

Director Geoffrey Hyland’s Twelfth Night is spot-on. It is Shakespeare straight – no impinging directorial statements, no gimmickry, no fake modish relevancies. Illka Louw’s costumes – sybaritic and eye-catching – support the action, don’t become the act. Every word is audible, even from the minor players, delivered naturally, without marring the poetry.

In the female leads, Henri Landon is an impeccable Viola and Astara Mwakalumbwa a captivating Olivia. Part of the success is the cast of veterans and theatre troupers Hyland has assembled, with their considerable stage presence and precision comic timing. They’re worth listing: Jeremy Crutchley excels in his sympathetic portrayal of the repugnant Malvolio, Nicholas Ellenbogen as the ebullient Sir Toby Belch and Robyn Scott as a rather bawdy Maria, Adam Neill as the twit Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

Robert Jeffery’s courtly musical compositions played by his trio, together with the tender vocals of Claire Wattling as the Fool, round out a production of Shakespeare, that is the most accomplished seen in South Africa for years

January 16, 2006 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Comments Closed