There’s an abundance of Afrikaans theatre festivals in the Cape at the beginning of the year.
They started with the Suidooster Festival in Cape Town in February, followed by the Stellenbosch Woordfees last week and then its time for the daddy of festivals, The Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), which runs in Oudtshoorn from March 29 to April 6.
Last week was my first experience of the much talked about Woordfees and I was keen to see especially what happened to theatre at this kind of event with the focus on literature.
More than that, how are artists coping with these three festivals on top of one another, all playing such a large role in their livelihood. A producer/director like Albert Maritz seems to have found a way of playing his cards deftly as he moves between plays and festivals to get as much mileage from productions, almost like an old-time travelling rep company. A prime example is Mooi Maria which premiered at Potchefstroom’s Aardklop in October 2011, the 2012 Woordfees, and from there the KKNK in April, Nelspruit’s inniebos in June, and closing with the 2013 Suidooster. That almost gives the production a reasonable run.
While the season is short, the fact that the play travels from festival to festival gives it and the players air and allows audiences to catch something which gets great word-of-mouth from its first performance.
Similarly with a play like Saartjie Botha’s brilliant adaptation of Andre P Brink’s Bidsprinkaan which had less than a handful of performances at the Suidooster Fees, you could immediately book for a second performance, this time at the open-air Oude Libertas Amphitheatre which fit this production like a glove. It’s the epic story of the colourful Kupido Kakkerlak turned into a magical character by a sublime performance from Elton Landrew and a marvellous supporting ensemble with Gys de Villiers, Lee-Ann van Rooi, Crystal Donna Roberts and Gideon Lombard. That’s a powerful line-up.
It’s a good chance to see the play a second time in the best possible circumstances. It also helps to spread word-of-mouth for a production that will possibly play at Aardklop and deservedly so for a performance of a lifetime by Landrew, who has been growing in stature with a recent performance in Boesman and Lena. It also means that these great productions don’t have to fizzle out after a ridiculously short season.
Yet in contrast, at the Woordfees, it was also a sense of artists seeming slightly overwhelmed that dominated some productions. Too many of the plays seemed to miss the mark. It was as if too little thought and time had been put into individual productions. Keep in mind, I only experienced the first half of the festival so perhaps it was just an awkward bunching of opening plays.
New directors seemed ill at ease with basics like sight lines (whether the audience can see the action on stage) overlooked, texts were often overwritten without careful cuts with in some instances plays overrunning by more than 30 minutes, and sometimes texts not making much sense. All of these things are common at festivals because of the lack of time but it seemed more prevalent in these first few days.
It is a festival that seems to be giving more attention to theatre than in the past when writers and books hogged much of the spotlight, hence the name. But perhaps less quantity and more quality is a better option. If you have the choice of such a wealth of arts and theatre shared with literature, fine arts with the likes of Wim Botha and music both light and classical, audiences might be happier mixing theatre with writer’s speak. But then as always, even when the pickings are slim, there are always a few shining lights that make any theatre experience something extraordinary.
Revisiting new young artists like Wessel Pretorius and Cintaine Schutte performing in the delightfully title Boetie, Dit is Tyd vir Bid as ’n Seekoei op jou Skoot Kom Sit (Bro, it’s time for prayer when a hippootamus sits on your lap) makes travelling a joy. It’s a compilation of Philip de Vos philosophical (and often hysterical) limericks which was done in the mid-’90s by Francois Theron and Nicole Holm, the young darlings of their generation.
But it shows, time and again that when you have a text, a director (Juanita Swanepoel) and actors with smarts, it’s almost impossible to go wrong. It is all about performers at play with Pretorius and Schutte joyously attacking every line as inventively as they can while throwing the spotlight back and forth and keeping audiences on their toes and enthralled.
You leaves the theatre with a chuckle and a sense that anything is possible.That’s what good theatre can do for you.
But there are others to watch out for. One is Gideon Lombaard (miskien..., Nagwond) who didn’t only make one of the most beautiful speeches in Bidsprinkaan but also made a rare turn in Die Melktrein Stop nie Hier nie. Heiland, a mother and son effort of a translated Sam Shepard text, didn’t quite work but the set by Juanita Ferreira was extraordinary and ingeniously put together in recylce fashion.
Hannah Borthwick (daughter of James and Rika Sennett) is spreading her wings and her cast of characters is growing rapidly with another fine performance in Die Lelike Eend, coming up with something fresh and new.
Even when you’re seeing a few too many that need more work, there are always the triumphs and at the Woordfees, (because I was only seeing debut performances) there were enough star productions from earlier festivals to warrant it a successful theatre contingent. Perhaps that’s where they should concentrate while just picking a handful of new ones that could really blow your socks off.