DIRECTOR: Penny Youngelson
CAST: Iman Isaacs, Richard September
VENUE: Rosebank Theatre
UNTIL: January 31
RATING: ***
Penny Youngleson’s latest short drama paints a disturbing picture of teens on the Cape Flats. It is a bleak, nihilistic and in-your-face sketch predicated on the intense physical performances of Iman Isaacs and Richard September.
A third character influences the two in the form of a narrated soundtrack, courtesy of Indalo Stofile. Originally Stofile would have been part of the perform-ance, but she had to pull out.
Youngleson has indicated that she will rework the play to incorporate the ideas, but excise the third character.
Still, the best line comes courtesy of this unseen character who exerts such a force on the two children: “Everyone’s story is sad, you can’t cry all day.”
Walking into the Rosebank theatre, you stumble on to the two actors already on the darkened stage, playing with matches. The set is bare, propless, and it remains so throughout. The two run, walk and dodge their way around imagined obstacles and people, tossing each other about, hiding behind each other, each trying to protect the other even when seeming to put their friend in harm’s way.
While the storyline nominally revolves around events leading up to Guy Fawkes on the Cape Flats – which isn’t so much about commemorating the person as it is an excuse to commit general mischief and mayhem – Nat is a character sketch more than a chronological narrative.
Through gesture and word, Isaacs and September give voice to two children who are heavily influenced by the people around them, but insist that they have created themselves and do not need the useless adults in their lives.
While plays do not have to present solutions to the problems they highlight, it does help if there’s a point of some sorts and it is difficult to find the exact message here.
It is a character sketch of hopelessness and despair which depresses the soul – if the question is why do they express themselves so physically and in such aggressive ways, look no further than Adam Small’s work. Currently being celebrated at Artscape, it paints the picture of how their parents grew up and learned their worth or rather, lack there of.
Then again, Nat still has the feel of a work in progress and its presentation is certainly intruiging and worthy of further exploration.
Isaacs and September both get under the skin of their chararacters, investing them with aggressive gestures, dead eyes and manic energy. They swear at each other, the people around them and the audience, challenging the imaginary people who address them, desperate not to appear vulnerable to anyone.
The children struggle to articulate their feelings, but what teenagers ever impress adults with their verbal acuity?
Their very physicality is their expression and it is the very language that defeats writer/director Youngleson, hence her need to explore characters she does not understand.
Further investigation will be welcomed and Youngleson’s willingness to keep on exploring the idea bodes well. So, the three stars reflect the potential evident in this typical Rust Co-operative production.