The Double Bass
DIRECTOR: Alan Swerdlow
PERFORMER: Pieter Bosch Botha
SET AND LIGHTING: Denis Hutchinson
VENUE: Sandton’s Auto and General Theatre on the Square
UNTIL: March 14
RATING: ****
If you have ever watched an orchestra and imagined individual stories for the different players, this is that kind of play. As the double bass player starts telling his story, sharing the intimacy of his world with the audience, there’s as much happening around the story as the details he shares.
Written by Patrick Suskind (Perfume), The Double Bass is described as one of the most performed plays in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It makes sense because it is a story from a specific place, about a mindset, a lifestyle, a career choice and a kind of acceptance that feels quite foreign to us.
In a sense the musician’s life is all about the choices he made. He was the one who decided to play the double bass even though he describes it as possibly the worst position to have in the orchestra. Not only that, he is even at the bottom of the double bass rung.
It’s an instrument that holds the orchestra together, without which the orchestra cannot survive but precisely because of that, no one pays it any attention. Whether he plays well or bad, no one will notice.
In fact, that’s probably exactly why he is stumbling over this awkward instrument that takes up so much space – with little value, he feels, if at all.
It’s a story of loss, loneliness and resignation that could have you sobbing, but the way Suskind has used the material, the way the story unfolds, pulls you into the minutiae of a life that is understood from its past and its future, is both intriguing and complex. Why the choices were made, how one puts one need above another, the chances you take, the need for security and the determination to disappear, all come into play. What makes this one come alive and tingle is the smart directorial and performance choices.
Bosch Botha is a fascinating actor.
This is his second solo piece for this theatre but very different in tone and energy to the first which had a strong comedic thrust. And that especially adds to the texture of The Double Bass. If he had played all the emotion and the meaning of the text, there would too quickly have been nothing left, but to whisper into the ear of the audience, hold their attention, but only with a slight nudge every once in a while, a crack here, a hint of something to hold on to, is daring and plunges you headlong into the turmoil of what is, what could have been and what will probably happen. As the title suggests, everything is swathed in music – the actual sounds but also information about orchestras and composers that you might or might not know. Bosch Botha cleverly uses a German accent which places the audience in the mindset and landscape of the piece. It’s different, spellbinding and has you thinking about the world, the way we live in it, and whether we are in fact in charge of our own destiny.