By Anél Powell
Maggie Blaauw has been a domestic worker in Darling for more than 33 years. Originally from the Eastern Cape, she is proud to call her unassuming house in Denneboom Road, home.
September is Maggie's favourite month, as her tiny garden is iridescent with spring blooms and sunflowers. Although she loves people and has many white friends, she regrets that there is very little mingling with the white community.
In this picturesque town, known for its annual wildflower display and Evita se Perron, life assumes its own somnambulant pace.
The racial integration that proceeded South Africa's first democratic election in 1994 has been slow to catch on.
Ten years later, Darling remains divided - not only by the railway line that separates the predominantly coloured community from its white neighbours, but by the legacy of apartheid that has made segregation an accepted way of life.
Few of the town's white residents, who make up an estimated 10 percent of the population, have ventured across this incidental, yet tangible divide, to mix with their coloured neighbours.
But this is about to change, thanks to an innovative theatre project being launched next month by Dutch couple, Wim Visser and Inge Bos.
Not usually a town linked with firsts of any sort, Darling will host Africa's first Voorkamer/Front room festival during the last weekend of September.
For three days, locals from both sides of the railway line will literally open their homes to South African and international artists and performers.
Visser said the novel concept is based on a production he saw in Holland 25 years ago, staged in the front room of a house on the outskirts of town. He forgot about the unexplored genre until three years ago, when friend and colleague Pieter Dirk Uys invited the pair to visit Darling.
Despite their fondness for the town, the couple was startled to find that the small rural community, with a population of less than 8 000, remains segregated even after 1994.
Seeking a way of encouraging the separate communities to connect with each other, Visser recalled the Voorkamer theatre concept he had witness years before. With its vibrant community and inherent theatre culture, Darling seemed the perfect stratum for this creative experiment.
Said Visser: "It was the friendliness and openness of the people living here and their willingness to share despite living in RDP houses, that convinced me to try out the concept."
The inaugural Voorkamerfest was initially planned to coincide with the town's 150th anniversary last year. But, it is perhaps more fitting that organisational delays have meant it will instead correspond with the country's decade of democracy celebrations.
The festival entails performances at 18 different venues, or houses, including the HOP houses, said Visser. The HOP houses are the RDP houses built after the first election. Visser, his apple-red cheeks flushed with enthusiasm, said he preferred the Afrikaans term HOP to RDP, as hop sounds more lively.
While the audience will not know until the show starts what is on the bill, the one thing that is certain is that each of the 25-minute performances will be lively and entertaining.
Artists from South Africa, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany and Algeria have signed on for the festival. Venues have been divided into routes, which can be covered on foot or by bus. Moving from one house to the next is part of the theatrical adventure. There will be a mix of excitement as people travel with people they don't know, to venues and shows that they don't know, said Visser.
Each venue promises to be a unique cultural experience, with shows ranging from dance and theatre to poetry readings and magical shows. The only constant, said Visser, is that all the performances will be completely professional .
Residents, who will not be opening their homes to performers and visitors this time around, will still benefit from the festival spin-offs. They can, for example, sell refreshments along the theatre routes.
Maggie heard last week, on Friday 13 as she pointed out superstitiously, that she will be one of the theatre managers who will be hosting one of the 18 performances. "I am so excited. I cannot wait for the day to come," she said.
She has no concerns about opening her sparse home to strangers, some coming from overseas. "It is a small house, but we can move the furniture around and make it bigger. When the people leave, will just rearrange everything and make it a small house again," she said pragmatically. Like many of the theatre managers, Maggie will also be selling food during the festival. She was filled with praise for the Dutch couple who took photographs of her house and garden.
Visser and Bos are theatre people, having devoted most of their lives to their respective crafts. He works as the artistic director of Amsterdam's Royal Carre Theatre, overseeing the musicals and circus shows that attract more then 450 000 people each year. Bos runs an independent theatre company. She has produced numerous musicals and cabarets and recently staged a Muslim version of the Vagina Monologues. Yet, despite their devotion to the arts, they couple insists that the Voorkamerfest is about more than just entertainment.
"The aim of this project is the economic development of Darling," said Visser. It is not just about the theatre, he stressed, but about getting the people of Darling going, encouraging self-initiative. While the rands and cents impact cannot be calculated with any certainty, Visser said the financial impact on the rural community would be substantial. He is adamant that this festival will be a boon for the Darling community.
"Imagine if there was a copyright on the word darling? If a cent went into a blikkie (can) every time someone said darling, the people of Darling would be wealthy," he said.
The Stichting DOEN in the Netherlands is funding the festival and an overseas theatre will support each venue. One of these supporting theatres is the Royal Carre Theatre in Amsterdam, where Visser oversees the musicals and circus shows that keep its annual 450 000 guests entertained.
The artists are not being paid for their work, and Visser and Bos are not aiming to profit from the event. Instead, it is about creating a vibe for the people of Darling while providing a platform for emerging performers to showcase their work.
The reaction of the community to the Voorkamer concept has been, said Bos, overwhelming. "Everyone is very excited," she said. Maggie said: "The people of Darling have never known something like this before, and we are so looking forward to the festival."
The Voorkamerfest is fast attracting local and international interest, with heavyweights being vocal in their support.
The ever-ebullient Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "If this works, it could be the blueprint for other communities."
Uys, who will offer guests to post-performance repast at Evita se Perron, said: "Archbishop Desmond Tutu gave a whoop of delight and rubbed his hands with glee, and legendary Helen Suzman gave one of her wise looks and said: 'Keep me a place in one of the B&Bs'."
Other big names associated with the event include Wim Kok, former prime minister of the Netherlands, Dutch showman Herman van Veen, Stef Bos, David Kramer, flamenco guitarist and composer Paco Pena and Mannie Manim, Baxter theatre director. While the lace curtains may not have lifted on the first performance, there is already talk of a filming a documentary about the event.
Although Bos and Visser are so confident of the festival's success that they have negotiated with Sophia Loren and Emma Thompson for the 2005 festival, they have no intention of replicating the formula in their homeland.
"It is needed here, in South Africa, not in Holland," said Visser. He added: "There is a lot of local talent here and we want to make people interested in theatre, no matter what their cultural background."
Coming to the festival, he said, would be an opportunity for people unfamiliar with South Africa to learn more about the country, directly from its people.
The Dutch duo who proudly carry business cards with their names contracted into the zippy fishbush logo while in Darling, have unwittingly hit on a project that endorses the ubuntu concept.
They may not know much about the African concept of community spirit, but they see the Voorkamerfest as our way of sharing with the people of Darling.
"This is a project for the community; involving the community," Visser emphasised. "We have managed to get the community talking to each other, some for the first time ever." Maggie sees the festival as a historical thing . She said her white neighbours have promised they will visit, carrying their bankies (benches) and stools .
Visser and Bos will manage the project for the next three years but by 2007, Darling's residents will take over the event, making the annual Voorkamer/Front Room festival entirely their own.
And soon, there will be more than just wildflowers and a quirky, satirist to see in Darling. There will also be top-notch entertainment, staged in the living rooms of Darling's own colourful personalities; in the homes of people like Maggie Blaauw of Denneboom Road.
- Darling's Voorkamerfest will take place from Friday, September 24 to Sunday, September 26. Performances on Friday are at 6pm, Saturday at 12am and 6pm and lastly on Sunday at 2pm. Tickets cost R80 per route, and this includes three performances. Bookings can be made by calling 022 492 28 51/31 or e-mail [email protected] or visit www.voorkamerfest-darling.co.za for more information.
- This article was originally published on page 6 of The Cape Times Review on August 17, 2004