WRITER and director Verne Rowin Munsamy will stage No Contest at Musho! which is a sequel to Reality Bytes.
“It sees two contestants on a TV talent show, South Africa Should Have Talent, battling to prove their worth and talent to the rest of South Africa. However, some of these talents are a little bizarre. The main characters are two dancers from Chatsworth, who wish to build a rehabilitation centre in the community with their winnings. Along the way we meet avid supporters of the show as they air their views about South Africa, their communities and what talent they expect South Africa to have,” he explains.
We asked what the show’s themes were: “Some of the politics the play covers are poverty, class, drugs, violence and justice… or lack thereof. The play is inspired by the high levels of drug abuse in Chatsworth and the need to better ourselves as a country, not just in terms of combating drug abuse, but in many facets of life and, more importantly, community life.
“It is political and unashamed of the fact that it aims to bring about change. But we don’t superimpose our ideas, rather we allow some weird characters to share their views on it all and allow you to decide for yourself. It’s entertaining and life-changing all in one,” he said.
Starring himself and Sashin Kandhai, the duo whip through 22 characters, 11 each, with a few video blooper reels added in.
“It’s a crazy, mad-house of characters and accents. But we wanted to represent a wide spectrum of people who represent the myriad ‘types’ who make up South Africa. We have Saras and Peri from Chatsworth, the grandmothers of our lead characters Dharshan and Direshan (the dancers).
We also meet Shaafi and Errol, from Cape Town, who just want a bit of tolerance. That’s just to name six of them. But we have service industry workers to beauty pageant contestants all thrown in the mix. All the characters represent various locations in South Africa as well as various plights that affect us as South Africans. We want to represent the everyday people of the country,” said Munsamy.
He said the show is a political satire, with dancing, video scenes and monologues, and plenty of costume changes.
“It is very physical but loaded with comedy. And if load-shedded, the show can still survive with just a candle,” he laughs.
“We want the people who watch this show to take a deeper look at their own actions as well as those that we have placed in powerful positions. We want audiences to know that the power to change something starts from the self, as Gandhi said: ‘be the change that you wish to see’, because, let’s face it, change is needed.
“This sequel highlights some of the same issues that Reality Bytes tackled, not because I am a lazy writer, but because those problems have not been sorted, eight years down the line. We need to start making clever choices, Julius Malema isn’t one of them,” he said.
• No Contest stages on Friday at 6pm, for ages 13 and up. For more see www.mushofestival.co.za.