CHOMI
DIRECTOR: Motlatji Ditodi
CAST: Thabang Sidloyi, Sipho Mahlatshana, Anele Situlweni, Yanga Mkonto, Robert Haxton, Mandisi Sindo
VENUE: Arena Theatre, Artscape
UNTIL: November 1
RATING: ***
UNDONE
DIRECTOR: Wessel Pretorius
CAST: Wessel Pretorius
VENUE: Arena Theatre, Artscape
UNTIL: November 1
RATING: ****
CHOMI and Undone are being presented as a double bill, though to be semantically accurate, they are actually alternating and have nothing to do with each other.
Still, they do have a link that goes beyond sharing the Artscape’s technical crew. Both approach identity from two very different angles.
Both feature nudity (and heaven forbid you end up watching Chomi with youngsters who have never seen two men kissing before because the chatty Kathies were irritating with their interjections).
The difference is not just that Undone is an ephemeral one-man show while Chomi features a fast-moving ensemble cast of six men playing eight different characters.
Undone is a statement of identity delivered at some times in verse and other times as wistful reminiscence, but always measured and deliberate.
Chomi on the other hand is bitty and rapidly paced, almost soap opera-like in its fast edits and jumpcuts – characters move on stage as others exit, with three distinct spaces on the stage creating various rooms in different apartments thanks to clever lighting.
The ensemble piece concentrates more on creating atmosphere than necessarily telling you anything you didn’t already know.
Written by Pfarelo Menakonde, Chomi explores the relationships within a specific group of gay friends in Joburg – delete the word gay and substitute it for anything you like and you would still pretty much have something similar. This is about how these specific people relate to each other and it comes back to the title which means “friend”.
As they go about the business of making and breaking relationships, each has to confront his own foibles and learn to deal better with each other.
In other words, life happens.
The characters break the fourth wall to address the audience a couple of times – when they are telling us their history and personal stories this gives us insight into their characters, but it is rather unnecessary and trite to tell us what the play is about, which is also something they do. Yes, there is irony at play but you don’t have to tell us this, if the audience couldn’t pick it up from the material presented, then why beat us over the head with the idea?
Undone’s monologue, on the other hand, is carefully calibrated wordplay which hints at a mesmerising original Afrikaans script (Ont racked up the awards on the Afrikaans theatre festival circuit). The English version incorporates a smattering of Afrikaans and this translation must have been a herculean task, so kudos to Hennie van Greunen.
The play is couched within the conventions of telling the ancient story of Dionysus.
It is not only the stylised language, but also Pretorius’s physical movement, that is exacting. He starts off naked in a bathtub and proceeds to move around the spare set, taking a few relevant props out of a huge trunk he drags around, to create and play various characters, blurring gender lines.
The formal narrative is that of a poet trying to figure out how his dysfunctional family – stoic dad, selfish brother, long absent but fondly remembered mother – have made him who he is.
While the story is very personal, it also references Afrikaner culture throughout, but he constantly comes back to the idea that we create our own identity through the stories told about us, but, more important, the stories we tell about ourselves.
Ultimately though, where Chomi tells us who these people are, Undone shows us exactly who this person is – and that’s the biggest difference.