THE BRAM FISCHER WALTZ
DIRECTOR/PLAYWRIGHT: Harry Kalmer
ACTOR: David Butler
VENUE: Barney Simon Theatre at Joburg’s Market
UNTIL: October 5
RATING: 4 stars (out of 5)
Diane de Beer
BRAM Fischer is a South African hero not many people know about. They may be aware that he was involved in the Rivonia Trial and later imprisoned for life, but won’t know much more.
That was one of the reasons why Kalmer felt compelled to tell his story. It took years of research and interviews with people who had known him, as well as talking to his daughter, Ilse.
The play was launched in Afrikaans at one of the festivals, then translated into English for the National Arts Festival, where it won a 2013 Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award and the Adelaide Tambo Human Rights Through the Arts Award this year.
It’s that kind of play and Kramer believes it has finally come home. It’s the story of one man’s life told from his prison cell as he looks back at his youth, how he became sensitised to the horrors of this country during the apartheid years and how he was regarded as a traitor and, even worse, a communist by his people.
None of this mattered to Fischer. He had the support of the love of his life, his wife, Molly, who died in a car accident the day after the Rivonia Trial was concluded, with Fischer behind the wheel as they made their way to Cape Town.
He was shattered, and it probably meant he was more determined to fight for the freedom of the country. Before too much time elapsed, he faced a lifetime in prison.
Kalmer had an uphill task telling his story in a way that would bring Fischer alive. His is a sad life, even with his heroic deeds.
What the playwright achieves exquisitely is to portray the determination and dedication of people who decide to fight injustice. Once they turn that corner, there’s no turning back.
Butler has perfected the solo performance. This started possibly as a need to create his own work, but, being the actor he is, he becomes the character he is asked to play. He takes on the accent, the mannerisms, and tells the story in a way that has you mesmerised by the emotional heft.
One of the tools is to vent Fischer’s frustration loudly when he seems to walk into immovable walls. Loneliness was a torment and something he battled with from the start of his incarceration and something that never left him.
But he knew he had to battle on and that’s exactly what he did as he danced his loneliness away with a wife who always stood by his side – even after she was gone.
It could have been a lecture, but with Kalmer and Butler working hard, they have circled Fischer’s soul and celebrate a great son of the South African soil.