‘IT DOES feel like an awfully long run,” writer and director Philip Rademeyer rolls his eyes. His new play Ashes is about to start at Alexander Upstairs and for the first time he will present a production with previews which is throwing him a little.
The first time this two-hander saw the light of day it only had five performances because one of the actors was involved in an accident, truncating the run.
Now they have recast recent UCT graduate Jason Jacobs alongside, by comparison, long-time performer Stefan Erasmus, who also trained at UCT, and everyone is going to try for the long haul.
Rademeyer has partially rewritten Ashes, though the story and impetus remain: “Three murders of gay men inspired the story. It still looks at a guy from the rural area and teases apart his life and relationships.”
The play’s title references the concept of what remains behind after someone dies.
Erasmus and Jacobs each tackle three roles and some of the structural dynamics have changed. For the first time Rademeyer has also decided to work with sand and “it’s getting messy”.
While his work tends towards sparse sets (The View had a few props for one of the characters, and only a chair and a video cassette for the other), this makes for a very different staging. “We have had to solve the quick change-over,” he half- jokes as he talks about the show also going to Grahamstown where they will be part of the Cape Town Edge platform at the National Arts Festival.
Since Rust Co-operative won a Silver Ovation for Siembamba last year and one for Expectant in 2013, they made two submissions to this year’s programme and in addition to Ashes will also present Full Stops on Your Face (which Rademeyer stage manages) on the Arena programme. (Full Stops on Your Face is about gendered violence, told from the point of view of a woman).
For this run of Ashes, though, Rademeyer has also added a more overtly political aspect to the monologues –his writing tends to use politics as a backdrop to tell very personal stories, but this time the political aspect carries greater weight than just a backdrop.
The play draws on three horrific murders of gay men which were not highlighted in mainstream media: “It speaks to a normalisation of murder and systemic homophobia and the father character speaks to that in terms of how he has to come to terms with his own gay son,” said Rademeyer.
The specific incidents he refers to happened in coloured communities and Rademeyer is keenly aware of viewing gay culture from a city-centric, white perspective so he has roped in the actors to help create the actual speech patterns of the characters for a touch of authenticity.
“It’s also a way of thinking that isn’t just taking place in rural areas. That homophobia is widespread despite our very liberal constitution.
“One of the murders I reference happened in Mannenberg and that is also Cape Town.”
While he doesn’t think his play will suddenly change the way people view the world, he does hope it prompts people to engage in conversations: “I certainly want people to think about these social issues. I don’t have a naive idea about the power of theatre when the reach is smaller than, say, tv, and it’s more niched. But, I hope people who see it will think about what we’re saying. It’s about how society values certain lives more than others,” said Rademeyer.
Ashes carries a no- persons under 16 age restriction
• Ashes is on at the Alexander Upstairs at 7pm from Thursday to June 20 (excluding Sundays). Ashes will play at the Princess Alice Hall in Grahamstown from July 2 to 11 at 7.30pm. Full Stops on Your Face is on at The Hangar. July 2 to 6 in Grahamstown.