I passed by at a bookshop at OR Tambo, I saw a crimson coloured book, on whose cover was carved the image of the cross.
It was titled Red April by Peruvian author, Santiago Roncagliolo, a murder thriller set during a Catholic festival. I bought and quickly read the novel.
Early on in the novel there is a scene in which a pathologist is talking to a prosecutor about a body, badly burnt, hand ripped off and on whose head a cross had been etched . The prosecutor, shaken by the savagery, asks the pathologist where a body could have been incinerated in this way. Nonchalantly biting into a chocolate, the pathologist replies: “in hell”.
After walking through the blood soaked and hellish landscape Roncagliolo expertly creates in his small masterpiece, Ariel Dorfmann’s Purgatorio had obvious attraction.
The play, directed by Claire Stopford, features a man (Dawid Minaar) and a woman (Terry Norton). It’s set next door to hell (or is it heaven?), that place where souls go for temporary punishment, before eventual redemption.
Partly based on Medea, the Greek myth, the couple find themselves in purgatory, unable to be moved to the next room, as they can’t forgive each other.
Suffering and perdition
The production’s bare stage (a metallic hospital bed, a stool etc) adds to its textures of immense suffering and perdition. The drab sexless costumes in earthy colours accentuates the dry, waterless atmosphere.
For the actors, who play several characters,, the play is a demanding one, requiring the actors to go through a variety of emotions: regret and rage, love and jealousy, hatred and horror.
Purgatorio is not only demanding on its actors — the audience is not spared. One is forced to go through the actors’ pain and suffering, the conscious is laid bare as every thought, motive and idea that precedes every human action is held up for scrutiny.
The result is a torrid journey through an arid landscape in which we question how one can move away from hatred and pain, hurt and loss. Watching Purgatorio is both rewarding and troubling.
For more from the National Arts Festival, see our special report.
