HOUSE OF HUNGER
DIRECTORS: Roel Twijnstra and Jerry Pooe
CAST: a cast of 18
VENUE: DUT Courtyard Theatre
UNTIL: Ended Saturday
RATING: ***
Startling, brash, raw, unexpected, angry, and uncompromisingly explicit. That is a lot of words, but they go some way to defining the Durban University of Technology’s unusual and innovative production, The House of Hunger.
Adapted for the stage by Roel Twijnstra and Jerry Pooe from the landmark book of the same title by the avante garde and eccentric Zimbabwean writer, Dambudzo Marechera, the production is quite unlike anything I have seen before.
The performance takes place on a ramp/stage set-up in the newly brick paved area outside DUT’s Courtyard Theatre. The seated audience are accommodated on an array of chairs, settees and chaise lounges, while others stand close to the stage. The proximity of the audience to the stage creates the effect that they are almost part of the action enacted before them.
The costumes are outlandish, highly colourful and almost baroque-like.
There is a cast of 18 talented second- and third-year students with energy to burn and perform with great enthusiasm and vigour. The presentation is in the form of a mix of high camp fashion show with plenty of loud electronic music, frantic dance and, at times, disturbing melodrama.
Marechera grew up in a dysfunctional family in colonial Rhodesia. His volatile novella The House of Hunger is a semi-autobiographical account of township life at that time. In a series of incidents he relates his profound experiences of violence, explicit sexual promiscuity and racial segregation. He gives insight into the effects of poverty and depravation on a community and, as such, carries important messages for all societies.
Marechera’s writing is superbly fashioned but with brutal anger, madness, despair, and savage humour. He tragically died at the age of 35 from an Aids-related illness.
Twijnstra and Pooe have translated his words into frenetic action on the stage. The audience is exposed to very graphic and realistic enactments of everything from vicious fights to violence against women, sex and gang rape. There is even a murder thrown in for good measure.
To single out individual cast members would do an injustice to the others as all gave everything to their roles and overall the performances were very strong.
The production was directed by Roel Twijnstra who was assisted by Pooe, who was also the musical director.
Special mention should also be made of Philisiwe Twijnstra for her superb costume design.
The House of Hunger is an in-your-face, no holds barred and relentless experience. Given the budget and experience restraints inherent in any student production, it was actually very good and well worth supporting, should it enjoy a second staging. Only, leave the kids at home because it certainly qualifies as an adults-only warning on the grounds of sex, language and violence.
• KZN's premier arts and entertainment website, artSMart, offers its visitors a host of information with a focus on what's happening in the Arts in KZN and industry-specific info for the fundis of the industry.