Post by Steve on Mar 4, 2016 1:19:39 GMT
I loved this hard-hitting, one-hour-twenty-minute play about a rogue South African policeman, having a bad day, looking for and finding someone to victimise.
Noma Dumezweni directs, for the Royal Court, in conjunction with the Market Theatre Johannesburg. I saw Dumezweni in the Market Theatre's touring production of "A Human Being Died That Night" at Hampstead Theatre, in 2013, about a power-crazed white Apartheid-era cop (Matthew Marsh), in which her character, Pumla, tried to understand his violence. This new play, by Mongiwekhaya, has the feel of a sequel, in which Domezweni interrogates the lingering violence in the police force, after the fall of Apartheid. . .
The South African regime has changed, but our black Post-Apartheid cop is as abusive as his white Apartheid counterpart. Whereas the Apartheid cop was actively pursuing a policy of subjugation, this Post-Apartheid cop, Buthelezi, acts in a chaotic vaccuum, with only his bruised ego, rampant jealousy and the scars of Apartheid to guide him. Ben is black, but to Buthelezi, he's white inside, an unworthy, ungrateful beneficiary of a better South Africa that he never suffered to create. The fact that Ben is dating a white girl only seems to add insult to the injury Buthelezi feels.
It is the vaccuum that is the haunting subject of this play. Who, if anyone, will stop angry cop, Buthelezi (Desmond Dube), from beating rich kid, Ben (Bayo Gbadamosi) to death? His beat-cop partner? His station boss? The Afrikaans-speaking white girl he picked up at a club? The doctor who takes his blood?
This play depicts a society where there is a cost to getting involved, and whether anyone is willing to pay that cost is something you will have to watch the play to find out.
Dumezeni generates immense suspense by her direction, setting most of the play in darkness, using music and sound effects to conjure authentic feeling locations out of a sparse stark undecorated empty space of a thrust stage, blocking the action with verve. The effect was an audience intensely involved, gasping audibly when the victimised boy dared talk back to his abuser.
There are two standout performances in a generally excellent cast: Jordan Baker is wonderful as Skinn, a lost soul of a 19 year old white South African girl, on the surface empowered, less so beneath; and Desmond Dube is startling and unpredictable as Buthelezi, Skinn's mirror in a way, as lost as she, damaged by history, but untethered from responsibility, and empowered by the State, he has mutated into a mundane monster.
Ultimately, this is a play that challenges it's audience about when it's right to step up, and when it's right to speak up. The title is partly ironic: everyone sees everything, but will anyone do anything about it?
4 stars!
Noma Dumezweni directs, for the Royal Court, in conjunction with the Market Theatre Johannesburg. I saw Dumezweni in the Market Theatre's touring production of "A Human Being Died That Night" at Hampstead Theatre, in 2013, about a power-crazed white Apartheid-era cop (Matthew Marsh), in which her character, Pumla, tried to understand his violence. This new play, by Mongiwekhaya, has the feel of a sequel, in which Domezweni interrogates the lingering violence in the police force, after the fall of Apartheid. . .
The South African regime has changed, but our black Post-Apartheid cop is as abusive as his white Apartheid counterpart. Whereas the Apartheid cop was actively pursuing a policy of subjugation, this Post-Apartheid cop, Buthelezi, acts in a chaotic vaccuum, with only his bruised ego, rampant jealousy and the scars of Apartheid to guide him. Ben is black, but to Buthelezi, he's white inside, an unworthy, ungrateful beneficiary of a better South Africa that he never suffered to create. The fact that Ben is dating a white girl only seems to add insult to the injury Buthelezi feels.
It is the vaccuum that is the haunting subject of this play. Who, if anyone, will stop angry cop, Buthelezi (Desmond Dube), from beating rich kid, Ben (Bayo Gbadamosi) to death? His beat-cop partner? His station boss? The Afrikaans-speaking white girl he picked up at a club? The doctor who takes his blood?
This play depicts a society where there is a cost to getting involved, and whether anyone is willing to pay that cost is something you will have to watch the play to find out.
Dumezeni generates immense suspense by her direction, setting most of the play in darkness, using music and sound effects to conjure authentic feeling locations out of a sparse stark undecorated empty space of a thrust stage, blocking the action with verve. The effect was an audience intensely involved, gasping audibly when the victimised boy dared talk back to his abuser.
There are two standout performances in a generally excellent cast: Jordan Baker is wonderful as Skinn, a lost soul of a 19 year old white South African girl, on the surface empowered, less so beneath; and Desmond Dube is startling and unpredictable as Buthelezi, Skinn's mirror in a way, as lost as she, damaged by history, but untethered from responsibility, and empowered by the State, he has mutated into a mundane monster.
Ultimately, this is a play that challenges it's audience about when it's right to step up, and when it's right to speak up. The title is partly ironic: everyone sees everything, but will anyone do anything about it?
4 stars!
