… MISKIEN
Director: Tara Notcutt
Cast: Albert Pretorius and Gideon Lombard
Venue: Baxter Golden Arrow Studio
until: September 27
Rating: ****
COMEDY and pathos combine to stellar effect in this spellbinding two-hander from actors whose grasp of their personae leaves the audience feeling as if they had made the acquaintance of two flesh-and-blood individuals rather than two invented characters in a play.
Director Tara Notcutt has an instinct for the arresting, and the opening moments of ...miskien attest to this: a man atop a table, adrift in a sea of crumpled notes, the picture of dejection, blows a raspberry at the audience. Twice. With hindsight, one realises that this is a wry comment on life and human relationships.
The other character, supine in the chaos of rejected stationery, gets up and leaves as the action starts. That is audacious theatre by any standards, as one expects entries rather than exits to initiate a play – and what follows sustains the curiosity piqued by this original preface.
Notcutt’s expert direction keeps the momentum building as we gain familiarity with the two anonymous men whose rapport is the backbone of this drama.
Both are imprisoned in a cheerless existence, although their circumstances differ: one is the victim of a loveless marriage; the other, unmarried, is equally miserable in a solitude that brings him evenings of unappetising microwaved meals for one… and the only pleasure for both is male bonding during Happy Hour at the day’s end before they repair to their respective domestic dreariness.
This might not sound like rich potential for drama, but when emotion of the rawest and neediest variety enters the equation, the temperature rises appreciably.
The bachelor yearns for more than platonic friendship from his Happy Hour companion, and this desire is expressed in repeated attempts to articulate his heart’s need – in notes. Each of which meets the same fate: it is crushed and consigned to the growing pile that carpets the stage.
Gideon Lombard, as the lovelorn half of the pair, gives a finely tuned, intense reading of his persona; the spluttering frustration accompanying each note’s rejection, and the effort required to read simple words like “Would you like to come with me to the cricket?” add to the inexorable build-up of emotional pressure that make the piece so engrossing. Will he finally succeed in communicating his feelings? Perhaps… miskien…
Albert Pretorius is brilliant as the unhappy, wistful married man, whose simple needs are summed up in the hope that his wife might remember his birthday. Whether interacting with Lombard in the rough camaraderie of consuming beer and cheering rugby, or reacting with ambiguity when the nature of their friendship dawns on him, the verisimilitude of his portrayal never falters.