BASIL APPOLLIS remembers as a child growing up in Wellington, accompany-ing his father to buy koeksusters on a Sunday morning.
“I could never work out why we would buy these koeksusters from Aunty Doris. They were way too expensive, they weren’t really nice koeksusters,” he laughs as he recounts the story.
“You had to wait in the dark, because not too many people could go in and buy, small groups could go. I’d wait in the car, and then I’d go and buy and I’d think, ‘there are other koeksusters, why are we buying from Aunty Doris that costs four cents?’ which was very expensive in the ’60s.”
Years later Appollis found out from his mother that the person in question was under a banning order and house arrest. Selling koeksusters was how people could contribute towards buying a ticket for her to leave the country because she had an exit visa.
Stories like these fascinate him and it’s these instances of how particular people’s lives were changed by broad forces like apartheid in very specific ways, that he wants to highlight and remember.
The actor/ producer and some time director has co-written two different plays with Sylvia Vollenhoven, which each delve into the lives of two school teachers from the Cape Flats who were passionate about exposing the evils of apartheid and were both driven out of their homes for their conviction – Dulcie September and Richard Reeves.
“We would see people like Dulcie as a politician, Richard talked about politics, but we’re also looking at how it affected people’s lives, and that’s the fascinating part,” said Appollis.
“When I look at Richard and Dulcie, as I was growing up, they articulated all the things I was feeling as a child.”
He tackles the role of Richard Rive in My Word! Redesigning Buckingham Palace, which will play in a repertory season with Cold Case: Revisiting Dulcie September (played by Denise Newman, pictured) next month at the Baxter.
Appollis can now also say that My Word! has returned from a succesful West End run, since he presented the play as part of a season of plays celebrating South Africa’s 20 years of democracy in London last year.
He says looking out at a sea of fascinated journalists bent over their notebooks is an unforgettable moment, as was getting a four-star review from the London Times.
“The response to My Word! is that you learn a lot more, that was a comment from The Guardian. That, of the three plays (he was sandwiched between Reza de Wet’s Fever and Athol Fugard’s Statements), you learn about the complexities of South Africa and I was very proud of that.”
“I think what was the eye-opener in London is that they don’t often get to know about our stories and Richard also talks about racism in his own family – that he was darker skinned. I think it was an audience member who mentioned that the black/ white issues of the other plays in the South African season totally ignored grey, and it is the grey part that actually gives you the complexity of South Africa, that there are so many people of mixed ancestory, that we’re so far down that line that we have developed our own culture.”
He knows there are many stories that would be worth telling. Like, when researching the story of September, he met Bettie van der Heyden whose first question was, “Why Dulcie?”
“She went into pedagogic mode immediately, and said: ‘You must remember that change is not brought about by individuals only, it takes a lot of people’,” Appollis recounts.Yet, what makes September’s story so compelling is that you could see the effects of politics in her life in a way that could be brought across on stage without having to rely on dramatic licence to make it interesting.
He knows from personal experience as well as global theatre trends that it is difficult to sell serious theatre that attempts to address issues of social change, but is emboldened by the small cult following that is starting to spring up around My Word! which he hopes will be replicated around Cold Case.
“Once they’ve seen it, I think people realise the importance of sharing our stories and how relevant they still are.”
Ideally, what he wants to happen is that audience members will engage with the story and the journey of the person in question: “I always refer to a professor I had who said: ‘If you change one person’s attitude in that audience, that is why you do it’.
“The musical stuff is my bread and butter, but my passion lies with the South African stories and the people who changed lives and made an impact on not only me, but lots of people.
“I wish my passion could actually meet some money.”
• A Class of One is the repertory season of My Word! Redesigning Buckingham Palace and Cold Case: Revisiting Dulcie September running on alternate nights from May 6 to 30 at the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio.