Writer and director Clinton Marius seems to have rainbow-coloured blood running through his veins, as is evident from the cultural and social stories he brings to stage. His most recent hit play, B!#ch Stole My Doek, heads to ‘Maritzburg this weekend. We picked his brain about this and other projects he has on the go…
AWARD-winning playwright Clinton Marius seems to possess a natural affinity for telling South African stories, tapping into the depths of communities and bringing that across to his audience.
We saw this in his writing for the hit radio series Lollipop Lane which was aimed largely at the Indian community. Then, in A White Christmas, he raised awareness around white South Africans. In his most recent production, B!#ch Stole My Doek, starring Durban actress Shona Johnson, Marius presents a coloured community’s perspective through comedy.
Tonight caught up with Marius to find out more about what sets off sparks in the mind of this creative. He explained that it’s a mix of things.
“When Shona had performed for my children’s show, Fantastical Flea Circus, I was amazed at her comical talent. I wanted to write something for her, something she could sink her teeth into, and what I wanted to try and branch into was our local coloured community.”
What also gets Marius’s creative juices flowing is observing who is attending theatres, which sparks ideas to feed those communities.
“I love writing from perspectives that are not my own. Often, they say you should only write from your experience, but I think that is extremely limiting. We should be able to write from any perspective.
“And besides, we shouldn’t be talking in these racial terms. The point is, people are still aligned with their own kind, their own ‘peeps’. So people get excited to go and watch something that is about their own peeps and we can’t deny that. I think we should carry on using that to grow audiences,” he explained.
Next on his bucket list is a black South African story.
“From a cultural aspect and sort of quite near on the horizon is something I would like to put together with other creatives from Durban for the Assitej World Conference which is happening in South Africa is 2017, and that is a story called Mautse. If you’ve ever been to the Rustlers Music Festival (in the Free State) there is a valley near it called Mautse, which is known as the sacred valley of the sangoma.
“It’s like the highest place of learning and retreat for sangomas in South Africa. And I’d like to tell the story about this place which means unpacking animism and tribalism and the history of African medicine and religion and ideas about spirituality. That project is only two years away, but I’m starting to research it now,” he said.
Marius has a knack for raising social issues through comedy without losing the gravitas of matters. Asked why he opted to do this, he said: “Comedy is a bit like the laughing gas that’s used by dentists. You give it to the patient and it makes them open to anything. Humour breaks the ice and allows people to relax and then hopefully some lessons are learnt along the way.”
B!#ch Stole My Doek heads for the Hexagon Theatre from Thursday to Saturday at 8pm, with an additional 4.30pm matinee performance on Saturday. Tickets are R100, R80 students and pensioners at Computicket.