This year’s Aardklop National Arts Festival in Potchefstroom was more commercially driven, but there was still enough food for thought, with three productions dominating on stage. Diane de Beer reports
If theatre is a mirror to society, there’s no way we can ignore war and its horrifying effects. Could there be a better choice than Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, almost a century after he first wrote it, yet losing none of its firepower or relevance? In fact, the production at Aardklop, superbly translated by the brilliant Saartjie Botha as Moeder Moed en Haar Kinders, (winning Best Production) played on the past and present by setting it somewhere in the past. Yet every once in a while almost as if in a parallel universe, a present-day soundtrack with planes, helicopters and cars honking could be heard in the background as a reminder of where we are today.
Festival audiences are blessed that this is a space where they are given a chance to see these classics and with the bonus that managements are brave enough to take risks with their production and performing team.
Jerry Mofokeng (after a conversation between him and Botha questioning why white actors are never directed by black directors and then winning the Best Director nod at the festival) directed with Aletta Bezuidenhout as Mother Courage surrounded by an extraordinary ensemble cast including Cintaine Schutte, Andre Roothman, Derek Lotz and Juliana Venter, who not only acts but sings like an angel. (Bezuidenhout was nominated as Best Actress and Roothman for Best Actor). But we’re talking of a cast of 14 and a production team of seven which makes this almost an impossible production in today’s economic-strapped world.
With daily scenes on our television screens of life-weary refugees fleeing from a terrifying war-torn country, Brecht’s 1939 play echoes in the soul of everyone watching as he tramples through the devastation wrought by individuals scrapping to survive.
At the heart of the play are Mother Courage and her mute daughter (Schutte) who especially embodies the ravages and anguish of war in moments that create an avalanche of emotions that drives Brecht’s horror of war. It has the similar impact to something like the iconic Munch’s The Scream; a moment in time that stops your heart beat.
Then Bezuidenhout’s Mother Courage steps in with her practical powers of propelling her family onwards to collect the spoils of war which keeps them alive and, sometimes, even thriving. This isn’t a time for virtue, but for cunning, with each person for himself, as Brecht so breathtakingly illustrates.
With music and song introduced in a manner that reminds of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, it sets a particular tone which is almost dark cabaret rather than Brecht’s familiar vervremdung technique. Neethling’s music was quite extraordinary and introduced by the characters in such innovative fashion.
But that’s what the classics so beautifully illustrate as directors and cast add a contemporary edge or approach it differently for a new time. From Bezuidenhout’s bravura approach with a no-nonsense Mother Courage who puts food above her daughter’s virginity and knows when to deny familial bonds in the face of survival, she leads her scrappy cohorts in the only way she knows; with a courage that doesn’t allow for anything or anyone. Her will and wiles triumph, but at what cost?
With a stunning cast, Bezuidenhout leads the charge with Schutte, Roothman, Lotz and Holm all adding layers to the majestic production which is beautifully designed (both set and costumes by Birrie le Roux) and illuminating direction that gives us a production which relentlessly rails against war.
Paedophilia, another scourge of our time, is at the centre of another astonishing adaptation/translation by Botha, titled Son. Maan. Sterre (Many Moons). It’s not a topic often addressed in theatre (or life, for that matter) and the way this story is told is clever as it leads you down a garden path that is meandering until it suddenly stumbles into the harsh reality of what all five characters on stage are dealing with.
Casting is important with two young women, one pregnant, (Tinarie van Wyk Loots), another an airhead (Gretha Pietersen), a socially impaired science nerd (Wilhelm van der Walt), an elderly man (Louis van Niekerk) who is caring for his wheelchair-restricted wife (Lida Botha).
All on chairs in a row in front of the stage curtain, the monologues flip from one character to the next as they tell their particular stories that seemingly don’t have any real connection. But, of course, it does as their experiences start to unravel in a story of horror that leaves you gasping.
It’s an innovative text cleverly adapted for local audiences with performers who keep you watching and listening without missing a beat. It draws the curtain on something seldom discussed, yet tackles it without soft edges as it shows the effects on ordinary lives and the turmoil of trying to function in a world that simply flashes by. Van Wyk won Best Actress for her extraordinary interpretation of a woman so crippled by loss and anger that she stops functioning, (together with her demandingly discombobulated performance in Hemelruim).
This year’s Young Artist for Theatre, Christiaan Olwagen’s direction never wavers as his cast, even when motionless for most of the play, reach for one monologue after another to keep the action at a pace that’s quite mesmerising.
Again, with a sharp text, a topic that cleaves the heart, it’s the acting that has to hold the attention and keep the audience engaged. They do that and as one of the most successful productions, prove that even with something that’s this painful, stage is sometimes the best platform to expose and explore the toughest of subjects.
Fugard is another playwright whose insight into the human dilemma has stood the test of time and the production of People Are Living There, which was seen in Joburg earlier this year starring the amazing Anna-Mart van der Merwe (also nominated as Best Actress), packed them in at Aardklop. It was also the first time a Market Theatre production was seen at this Afrikaans festival.
Directed by an insightful Andre Odendaal with supporting cast including Francois Jacobs (nominated for Best Actor), Carel Nel and Dania Gelderblom, it dealt with another recurring global theme: poverty. While Fugard grapples with this rampant universal issue, Milly (Van der Merwe) and her three lodgers attempt to chase their dreams.
It’s not only Fugard’s hauntingly honest text written many decades ago yet still as relevant today, but also the chance of a second season (with hopefully more to come across the country), that have charged this production with an energy that builds on their earlier success.
Van der Merwe’s Milly has become even more nuanced and incisive with Nel scratching far deeper under the skin of his hardly-living Don, while Jacobs embraces the naïve Shorty enthusiastically as Gelderblom sharpens the claws of a shallow Sissy.
This is yet another classic that proves the timeless quality of Fugard’s incisive writing and was deservedly included on the Best Production list.
Diane de Beer was part of a judging panel with Theo Kemp, Danie Marais, Johan Myburg and Deborah Steinmair.