IF YOU follow Rust Co-Operative’s Tumblr page, the images of their trip to the Amsterdam Fringe Festival have been overtaken by the reminiscences of childhood, for their next production, Nat.
They have invited their followers to share pictures that remind us of the joys of being a child, specifically to highlight how Nat is about children who don’t get to feel that.
Director Penny Youngleson wrote the script for the short drama by drawing on her experiences with the children she teaches at the Batswood Arts Centre in Grassy Park. She specialises in teaching drama to participants aged 7 to 26, most of whom speak a variety of languages.
While Youngleson wrote the script for Nat, actors Richard September (Rondomskrik) and Iman Isaacs (Full Stops on Your Face) improvised the physical movement.
Together with Indalo Stofile, the three actors make up the smallest gang in the neighbourhood, the Cannibal Kids. They protect each other by vreting (guzzling) anyone who crosses them, but as they grow older their bonds of friendships start changing.
The language – which draws on English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu – is in your face so there is a no persons under 18 age restriction, but this play is not aimed at children anyway. It is aimed at adults, meant as a reminder that Cape Town is not just the City Bowl, but also people on the other side of the mountain.
It is also a reminder not to accept that just because some children are poor it follows that they don’t deserve a childhood.
Youngleson is dismayed by how the children in her drama class use aggression as a common means of expression, especially when they fail to communicate verbally with each other: “We have 11 official languages and they still can’t talk to each other. It’s like the kids relax into violence because they can’t express themselves. In some ways it’s like a safe space because everyone understands violence, whereas expressing yourself with words falls short,” she said.
“Nat” is an Afrikaans word for “wet”, specifically referencing the saying “wet behind the ears” or being naive, and the word is repeated throughout the drama in various contexts, always to emphasise how adolescents adopt adult behaviours and responsibilities in the absence of active caregivers or role models.
Rust Co-Operative have had a long relationship with the Intimate Theatre – that’s where they got their first break, starting works like The View or Expectant – but all good things come to an end, so now they are about to open this new work at the Rosebank Theatre.
“We just needed that gap on the calendar and yes, it’s a juxtaposition with the kind of work the Rosebank Theatre normally get, but I love exploding theatre,” said Youngleson.
“We might struggle with audiences, but it’s important for South African audiences to be exposed to various productions and ideally I want people who live in the City Bowl to see this. The demographic I am aiming at is those outside of this particular reality.
“Grassy Park is also Cape Town and if that top echelon of the small percentage of people who do go to the theatre can realise that, I’d be happy.”
• Nat runs at the Rosebank Theatre until January 31, Wednesday to Saturday, and then at KKNK in Oudshoorn from April 9 to 11.