/ 11 November 2011

Crime story with a realistic bite

Crime Story With A Realistic Bite

There are not that many ways of coming to terms with the reality of crime when someone you know is murdered, but one way is to block out the ugliness.

My sister’s husband was ­murdered in 2009; he was snatched away from her and her two young boys. It is the sort of one-liner that has become part of the discourse of many South African families. ­Everybody is affected, if not directly then through the endless screams of ghastly ­headlines depicting a bloodthirsty nation intent on self-destruction.

A random murder forms the basis of a new play, Solomon & Marion, by Cape Town-based writer-­director Lara Foot — that of young actor Brett Goldin and his friend Richard Bloom, in Cape Town in April 2006.

Veteran actress Janet Suzman plays Marion opposite newcomer Khayalethu Anthony as Solomon. Suzman was directing Goldin in Hamlet at the Baxter Theatre at the time of his murder and she and Foot revisit the incident through the play.

Blocking out the ugliness
Marion lost her son to murder seven years ago and now does what many of us have become adept at doing: blocking out the ugliness by avoiding newspapers and television.

It is easy for her to do this because she is divorced and lives alone in a house away from it all.

She spends her days writing ­letters to her daughter, who fled to ­Australia because “the country got so violent they became nervous”.

Marion’s solitary days are ­somewhat jolted out of shape when Solomon, the grandson of her ­former domestic worker, shows up at her house. He brings her chicken feet because she apparently needs to eat and he insists that she should not be ­living alone. Marion will soon discover that Solomon is delivering an important message.

One just wishes that he would let it out sooner, though. ­Unfortunately, although the play’s plot sounds intriguing, it does not have a script that will blow you out of your seat. Solomon & Marion is ­entertaining in a mild and appealing manner.

Crime and ritual
What it lacks in thrills, however, is compensated for by its honest portrayal of two contrasting South Africans trying to understand each other. It has an interesting ­subtext in the way it relates crime to ­ritual: in the opening scene of the play ­Solomon is in Xhosa ­initiation ­clothing with his face painted white. The sounds of men singing are silenced by a gunshot. Crime is a ritual for many young men in South Africa; it is the means of entry into subcultures and gangs.

The dialogue has a number of ­witticisms too. Marion can be cynical, whereas Solomon is something of a simpleton. Underneath it all are white fears and black hopes.

Marion talks about her feelings about being unable to leave South Africa, like many other whites. Solomon, meanwhile, carries on being the typecast simpleton. He decides to paint her house and Marion assumes that he will assist her with gardening. When they have an argument, he starts singing, then he cries.

The two reveal their misconceptions through their ­generalisations. “I thought all white people had ­groceries,” Solomon tells Marion when he sees that her kitchen ­cupboards are empty.

Most of the dialogue is ­light-hearted, borderline banter, especially from Marion, and the acting grasps one emotionally. Both actors draw the audience into the lives of the characters.

Beyond the show, crime still holds the country in its brutal grip. ­Suzman told a local newspaper last week that there should be “zero ­tolerance” for Goldin’s killers. One of the men involved in the kidnapping, but not in the murder, of the two deceased has applied for parole. He wants to get out of jail, but Goldin’s family intends to oppose his application.

It is a bizarre twist that the parole application is happening in the early weeks of Solomon & Marion‘s Cape Town run. It reinforces the ­perception that the play is contemporary theatre with a realistic bite.

Solomon & Marion runs at the Golden Arrow Studio in the Baxter Centre, Main Road, Rondebosch, until November 26. There will be a special performance on November 20 at 2pm, the proceeds of which will go to the Brett Goldin Bursary fund