The unheralded courage of actors in rehearsal

Rehearsals for Ariel Dorfman’s Purgatorio are in full swing at the Baxter Theatre, and have been for the last few weeks. Actually, it’s been a full month. A full month of 7+ hours every day where two actors, Terry Norton and Dawid Minnaar, stand alone on the stage and grapple with some of the most intense and emotional concepts ever committed to script, by the incomparable Ariel Dorfman.

For those of us on the periphery looking in, it’s been an education in the theatre arts, and so revealing as to what it takes to bring a work of this nature to the stage. We know about the skill and craft of actors, but what about the courage?

The bravery of soldiers, policemen, firemen is well documented and celebrated around the world. Everyone can relate to, or at least admire, the courage required to stand in the face of danger and do what needs to be done for the sake of a higher cause. But who ever thinks about what is required of two actors to delve into the blackest parts of their soul and bring to the surface their darkest impulses, their deepest fears? Every day they deliver ideas. statements and actions which leave an audience reeling, emotionally fragile and rubbed raw by what they witness on the stage.

What does it take to go to work every single day and conjure up those demons? One can barely imagine.

Both Norton and Minaar admit that Purgatorio is probably the hardest thing they have ever done on stage. It’s a relentless text, a juggernaut of emotion that is spellbinding…and horrifying. Gradually, the audience comes to understand the complete nightmare of the situation that these two people are confronting, and the full horror of the actions that have placed them in this place of purgatory.

It’s never over-wrought, or manipulative. It is what it is. The dark night of the soul. And for the actors it has to be a monumental effort of will, with only each other and their small team around them, to bring these characters to life day in and day out.

I won’t give away the story here right now. But it’s loosely based on the ancient text of Jason and Medea, so murder, revenge, infanticide, and suicide is never far from the action. For the actors to be able to go to those places, day in and day out, in front of an appreciative audience is one thing. There is an acknowledgement at the end of the show. But to stand in a cold, airless rehearsal room and confront your very own heart of darkness is truly an act of bravery, and a sacrifice of the highest order.

Audiences who come to Purgatorio are witnessing some of the bravest, most committed work that has been put onto a South African stage for a long, long time. There is an emotional, intellectual sacrfice that these actors have made which will hopefully be acknowledged when the curtain goes up on this spellbinding production.

Zabalaza storms the stage, demanding serious attention

Sitting in the dark, observing actors working with material, is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Whether on stage or on screen, you sit in the audience and commit to the journey with them and you become an integral part of the chemistry that exists in the room. Sometimes it’s awful, often it’s mediocre and sometimes, rarely, it’s transcendent.

The opening night of the Zabalaza festival was one of the most special, beautiful and inspiring nights that I’ve witnessed in the theatre.

The team putting together the Zabalaza Theatre Festival had spent the last few months scouring the Western Cape for the best and brightest community theatre talent out there. For the opening night performance, they took the controversial step of not showcasing only one of the productions, but instead devising a ‘collage’ of all the productions involved. Stories from all 12 of the productions were woven seamlessy from one to the next, threaded together by a narrator into an hour-long piece of theatre which exploded off the stage and into the hearts of everyone who was there.

It was a gamble that paid off spectacularly. The audience were on the edge of their seats, hanging on every word as the shows flowed from one to the next, showcasing the best segments of each of the productions while hinting at the hidden depths that each of the shows would deliver over the coming weeks.

Reflecting on the evening as a whole, it would be unfair of me to pick out any particular highlights. Certainly there were some actors who put in star-making performances who you will hear about them in the coming weeks, but it was the incredible standard of acting and singing from almost everyone involved which made such a lasting impression.

As the collage was coming to an end, the audience was, literally, bursting to give a standing ovation to the theatre companies. The last lines of the show were repeatedly drowned out as people spontaneously erupted with love and respect for the performers.

These young artists have worked tirelessly, rehearsing wherever and whenever they could (some even in public toilets) for the chance to bring their works of art to the stage for the public to enjoy.

The momentum now shift to us in the audience. We need to make the time to come see these productions, to bear witness to what these groups have achieved and to enjoy some of the most passionate, life-affirming and soulful theatre that you are ever likely to come across.

Author Ariel Dorfman discusses the origins of ‘Purgatorio’

Purgatorio is a pivotal work for me. Although it takes up many of the themes that have been central to my previous work (the dilemmas of forgiveness and retribution, the uncertainty of memory, the search for some ray of hope in times of terror and betrayal, the problem of identity in a world of false fundamentalisms), those themes were explored primarily in a historical moment and brought into focus by some primeval form of violence (torture in Death and the Maiden, censorship in Reader, disappearances in Widows, an array of forms of repression in Voices from Beyond the Dark: the Speak Truth to Power play), it is in Purgatorio that I plunge for the first time into the naked (and masked, of course) human relations without an immediate political context.

In that sense, it is a play that asks us all questions about redemption and myth and above all if it is possible for love to prevail when terrible things have been done to us and, far too often, by us.

Everything I have written since then has deepened this exploration.

Now as to the origin of that story, at first I wasn’t sure where the confrontation between that man and that woman happened, but slowly realized that it was the afterlife, and that they needed each other’s absolution to be reincarnated or simply to be purged of what they had done. Although the place I have imagined is not quite the Christian Purgatory, and certainly not Dantesque, inasmuch as there seems to be no God who can deliver these two from each other (in fact, it seems to echo Buddhism, if anything at all), I loved the idea of calling it Purgatorio, also a name that works in many languages, another thing I am fascinated with as a bilingual author.

And is going to appear, after all, in a multilingual country, such as South Africa, a land close to my heart and also experiencing the problems of damage and reconciliation between former enemies that is central to the play. And because this work has echoes about colonialism, about men who come from afar to a land that is not theirs and the women who receive them and cross over to the foreign culture only to then be betrayed by their invader/lovers, because there are hints that they belong to two different races, this might resonate in your country in ways that could be singular.

Though, of course, finally, what matters is not any political message embedded in the depths of Purgatorio, but that the audience empathize with the two characters, in turn, and then together. The play, after all, really transpires in the mutual mind of them both – they are as joined as a Moebius Strip, looping into each other, entangled in ways that we all are with those we love (and also, paradoxically, with those we hate), so we cannot be with one without being with the other, until we all reach what I hope is a satisfying finale to this odyssey of self-discovery.

Ouroboros: Could the early buzz signal a hit?

A wide spectrum of Cape Town’s “twitterati” were on hand at the Baxter Theatre last night to witness the preview show of the Handspring Puppet Company’s latest work, “Ouroboros“.

After a wonderful warm-up with Fairhills Wines and the Joubert Tradauw wine estate, the crowd was ushered into the main theatre to engage with the magic of puppetry. After the show, the response was immediate.

Take a look at a selection of tweets and status updates that describe how the general public felt about the show.

Messages came in via Facebook as well as Twitter:

and leave it to Rob van Vuuren to sum it up in his own special way….

What did you think of the show? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Join us for the Ouroboros ‘Taste, Tweet & Theatre’ evening

The Baxter Theatre Center recognises the emerging power of social media as a platform for promoting the incredible work done on our stages. We also recognise that 21st-century media players come in all shapes and sizes: From varsity-trained journalists working their way up in the local newsrooms to the independent voices armed only with a smartphone an opinion and an army of followers who hang on their every word.

What do all of these people have in common? Probably lots of things, but we’re pretty sure that a love of good, free wine would rank right up there as a common denominator.

That’s the reason why the Baxter has paired up two exciting wine brands, Fairhills and Joubert-Tradauw with the Tony-award winning Handspring Puppet Company for our third ‘Taste, Tweet and Theatre’ evening at the premiere of its new production “Ouroboros“.

Do you need me to explain the sequence of events? Here it is…

1. Arrive at the Baxter Theatre at 6.30PM on the 1st of June.
2. Sip the delicious wines. (*note* Sip, not glug)
3. Tweet about it.
4. Go in and watch Ouroboros at 8PM.
5. Repeat Step 3.
6. Go home.
7. Write spectacular, gushing blog post about evening.
8. Repeat Step 3.

Sound like something you’d be interested in? If so, then please e-mail your full name to jonathan.duguid@uct.ac.za, so we can reserve some seats in the theatre for you.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Composer Neo Muyanga on the art of the soundtrack

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Neo Muyanga is building up an impressive body of work as a composer for theatrical productions. Born in Soweto, he studied “the Italian madrigal tradition with choral maestro, Piero Poclen, in Trieste, Italy” before founding the ground-breaking acoustic folk duo Blk Sonshine.

Neo has composed soundtracks for The Royal Shakespeare Company (The Tempest), contemporary dance company, Jazzart as well as for “Memory Of How It Feels”, the highly-acclaimed show which he created.

Just days away from the opening of Ouroboros, his collaboration with the Handspring Puppet Company Neo spoke to us about how he works.

BaxterBlog: How did your collaboration with Ouroboros come about?
Neo Muyanga: Janni asked me to compose the score to ‘Ouroboros’ after we’d developed a rapport while working on ‘The Tempest’ (Baxter/RSC production) together a few years ago.

The biggest hurdle is always the first five bars of a new piece.

BB: Did you have a singular idea in mind when you began composing?
NM: I began by making two contrasting themes: One for Andre (the poet) which was classically-bent and the other for Nokubonisa (the dancer) which was Jazzfrican.

Take a listen to the two contrasting themes:
Nokubonisa\'s Theme
Andre\'s Theme

BB: What is your process when you compose for a production (i.e someone else’s vision)?
NM: This usually depends on the director and their articulated vision. Sometimes a director comes with a script asking if I would respond to the text musically. Others, like Janni, get me to come in to rehearsals and to create a sound to frame or inhabit the visual universe they are inventing. I always carry a notebook where all my musical sketches begin, then I go back to my writing cave where I expand and shape the ideas into fuller musical narratives.

BB: Is there much collaboration with the artistic team or, as composer, do you have free run?
NM: I generally compose alone and usually away from the team, but only once I have spent time taking in the influence of the creative team on the rehearsal floor.

BB: What’s the hardest part of creating a musical score?
NM: For me, the biggest hurdle is always the first five bars of a new piece. I usually know at the end of bar five if an idea I have is crap or not. Once I know I decide whether (a) to continue, (b) scrap and start again or (c) massage the pile of rubbish into a tray of silver with fruit.

BB: What can audiences expect to take away from Ouroboros?
NM: The story is beautifully told and I think Janni has made a stunning set of puppets and projection visuals.

BB: Is there a CD of the soundtrack available?
NM: No, I’m afraid not.

5 reasons you should see UCT Opera School’s La Boheme

For three days only this week, from the 26th to the 28th of May, UCT’s Opera School and the Baxter Theatre will be presenting La Boheme, one of the world’s best-loved operas, directed by the legendary Angelo Gobbato and musical direction from Kamal Khan.

Some of you may be wavering about whether or not to make the effort (despite the cold and the rain) to come and see it.

Here are 5 reasons why you absolutely should make the time.

1. It’s an extraordinary, timeless work.

Since it first premiered in Italy during the late 1880′s, La Boheme has been universally acclaimed as one of Puccini’s masterworks and an all-time opera classic. Written by Giacomo Puccini and originally conducted by Alberto Toscanini, the opera has been performed continuously around the globe for the past 130 years and was recently presented on Broadway by ground-breaking Australian director, Baz Luhrmann and won a Tony award.

2. The story is as relevant as ever.

La Boheme is set in Paris during the 1830′s, and is based on a series of short stories which portray the lives of the young bohemians who flocked to the Latin Quarter of Paris looking for love and artistic fulfillment. The plot revolves around the romance between poet Rodolfo and the seamstress Mimi. It’s grand, tragic, beautiful and hilarious – all at the same time.


3. Future opera stars will be on display.

UCT’s Opera School is continuously grooming and developing the brighest young talent in the world of opera and preparing them for a life in the spotlight. This staging will be a wonderful showcase for a new generation of opera stars to make their mark and begin the work of building a reputation as a major new star. This is your chance to see them before they are tainted by fame, jaded by fortune or exhausted by the gruelling schedule of a world-class music star.

4. This is your life.

Chances are that you’re young, struggling to make ends meet while following your dreams, deciding on a career, while finding and falling out of love. All at the same time. This is exactly what the show is about – and it’s what the performers as well as the audience are going through. At only R35 a ticket, it’s completely worth it.

5. The music

Of which there is nothing else to say except that it is sublime and unforgettable.

Click here for more info and to book tickets.

Billy Collins: The poet who inspired ‘Ouroboros’

A simple sentence in the marketing material from the Handspring Puppet Company reads “Ouroboros is inspired by the poetry of Billy Collins.” But who is he, and what does he say to inspire such a creative outpouring from our gifted artists?

Collins is a 70-year old American poet, born in March of 1941. He was the poet laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. He was raised in New York City and has worked at CUNY, the City University of New York, for almost 30 years.

His poetry is simply delightful. Utterly accessible, with a lightness and magic that connects to the reader and invites you to experience the world in a whole new way.

Listen as Collins reads one of his best-known poems “The Best Cigarette”.

It is not only the Handspring Puppet Company who have been inspired by Collins’ work. Artists and animators have been reading and interpreting his work

Who is David Kramer?

David Kramer was born in 1951, and graduated from Worcester Boys High School before studying textile design at Leeds University in the UK, and graduating in 1974.

Back in South Africa, Kramer hit the music circuit where he fine-tuned his unique, satirical musical style through countless gigs all over the country. His first album, Bakgat, was released in 1980 and was immediately banned, because of “its political satire, the use of coarse language and the mixing of languages”. But he had developed his signature style, a mix of languages and satire with a strong and developed an image of a ‘working-class hero’ – portraying the everyman in South Africa and telling the real stories of South African characters from small towns all over the country.

His first number one hit, ‘Blokkies Joubert’ was followed by another hit, ‘Royal Hotel’. But it was only after his endearing TV and radio campaign for Volkswagen, which began in 1983, that David became a household name across South Africa.

Three years later, he began work on his first musical collaboration with Taliep Petersen at the Baxter Theatre. It was called ‘District Six’