Sylvaine Strike doesn’t know if she’s coming or going, working on Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof in Cape Town, rehearsing Miss Dietrich Regrets and starting two new plays in Joburg, writes Theresa Smith
DESPITE the name change, Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof is the same play that debuted to critical acclaim and sold-out houses at last year’s National Arts Festival.
In Cape Town to rehearse a forthcoming production run at The Baxter Theatre, director Sylvaine Strike (pictured below) says they changed the name slightly to differentiate their play from the original source material which inspired actor/playwright William Harding to adapt and write this one-act play.
Harding reimagined Anton Chekhov’s original short monologue, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, creating a pastiche drawing on the works of among others, Franz Kafka, Edward Lear and Andre Breton.
“People who are familiar with Chekhov’s work will be expecting that and this one goes every-where, it’s not just that Chekhov world at all. It’s an extraordinary style and I suppose it’s about re-inventing the classics, the best of, in order to shape your own story. It’s all towards this vision of Tobacco, our show,” explained Strike.
Chekov’s short story is a lecture, about a man who is supposed to be talking about the harmful effects of tobacco, but starts telling everybody about his wife.
Harding kept the premise, with Ivan the stage character (Andrew Buckland) spiralling out of control when he is suddenly heard for the first time: “He just confesses everything that he wants to be and hasn’t been.”
Toni Morkel plays Ivan’s wife who wanders in and out of his mind, and hence the play.
Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof will also travel back to Grahamstown in July for a turn on the Fringe programme – Strike and actor Buckland thought last year’s success merited a repeat.
Last year, Strike was the featured artist on the Main programme, which has mostly been her stage home in Grahamstown since she was appointed Standard Bank Young Artist for Drama in 2006. But this year will be the first time since 2005 (with The Travellers) that she has had to wrestle solely with the difficulty that is the swollen Fringe programme.
“I’m already cursing myself for taking on two,” she only half jokes. “I almost went out of my mind with five (last year), and none of them were returning, they were new.
“It’s a hell of a horse,” she says about the festival and especially working on the Fringe.
“It’s amazing how expensive it is, we’re all feeling it, venue hire is having such an impact.”
Strike is also directing Harding’s new drama, Travels Around My Room, and one third of Simply Sapiens which is a triptych co-written and performed by Greg Melvill-Smith and Craig Morris.
“William wrote this new show which I just couldn’t say ‘no’ to because it is that gorgeous. It is a little project which will probably run at 50 minutes maximum. It’s not epic.
“Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof, although it’s about a small man’s life, is epic, because where he goes is so extraordinary that it was a very long process to craft. His journey is utterly epic and his transformation is mindblowing.
“Travels Around My Room is minute, it’s a little Fabergé egg. He travels far out of his room, but into his mind, which is beautiful.”
Simply Sapiens examines microscopically what it means to be human and her sketch entitled Virus is a monologue for Morris: “We’re still creating that so in a way that’s going to be more stressful than William’s Travels Around My Room because that’s written. We’ll chop and change things, but I have a very solid framework, but I won’t with Virus, so that’s going to be exciting.”
June 4 is going to be quite the busy day for Strike, with rehearsals starting for Travels Around My Room and Virus and Miss Dietrich Regrets opening officially that evening in Joburg.
Going forward, Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof will also travel to the Amsterdam Fringe Festival in October, and to the Market Theatre in Joburg in February.
l Tobacco, and the Harmful Effects Thereof is on the Baxter Flipside stage at 7.30pm from tomorrow to June 13. Then it travels to Grahamstown for the National Arts Festival – St Andrew’s Hall – from July 2 to 11.
l Travels Around my Room at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown will be in St Andrew’s Studio 2 from July 2 to 11.
l Simply Sapiens at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown will be on at PJ’s from July 6 to 11.
l Miss Dietrich Regrets is on at the Theatre on the Square in Joburg from June 2 to 27.