THEATRE: David Le Page
KARNAVAL, at the Johannesburg Civic, is a reminder that one of South=20 Africa=D5s great dramatic talents is hiding inside Evita Bezuidenhout. Twen=
years old, it remains poignant and very funny. Though it was undoubtedly=20 more outrageous in its language, and politically provocative, in the=20 Seventies, the loss of those resonances serves only to free a story that is=
essentially about human tragedy and endurance. The action unfolds in Cape Town, on a Long Street balcony on New Year=D5s=
Eve, 1973. The balcony is that of a seedy boarding house, inhabited by=20 human flotsam and jetsam: the pathetic, ducktailed joller Boytjie; his=20 bruised wife, Phyllis; three Afrikaans prostitutes, Rita, Letitia and Andre=
and tannie Dora. The evening takes us through a series of highs and lows=20 for all these characters, none of whom is immune to sadness. Across the way, a more genteel party is under way. We never see this other=
party, other than through the descriptions, alternately contemptuous and=20 envious, of Rita (Lynne Maree), Dora (Trix Pienaar) and others.=20 Occasionally we hear its music, though. It represents something=20 unreachable for Pieter-Dirk Uys=D5 characters: a life of ease. Not that they are overwhelmed by their lot; an armour of humour and hope=20 protects them against life=D5s batterings =D1 a hope born of the recognitio=
that, as Letitia (Gretha Brazelle) says, =D2the best things in life are fre=
Dora is an old lady who has seen a lot, but tries to hang on to some of her=
illusions. Trix Pienaar brings a wonderful sense of nostalgia to the=20 character as she gazes from her balcony into the past.=20 Rita is a wonderfully colourful character, full of fire and insult and fury=
Maree=D5s whirling performance carries her from tarted-up whore to invalid,=
and our reactions range from admiration to deep sympathy. Boytjie (Jonathan Pienaar) is the borderline sociopath, full of swagger and=
bullshit. Pienaar helps him demonstrate all the self-conscious sensitivity =
an Afrikaans boy still not quite comfortable in the city. But he is a wife- beater, something Theresa van As, as Phyllis, manages to communicate=20 through a nervous, ill-at-ease demeanour even when he is off-stage. Karnaval refers in part to Phyllis=D5 and Rita=D5s dreams of Rio de Janeiro=
carnival, a distant prospect where issues like race and violence disappear.=
The play is a pointed reminder of where we have come from =D1 and a=20 suggestion that we have not yet arrived. Karnaval is the first of three Pieter-Dirk Uys plays being presented at the=
Civic. Karnaval runs until September 9; Paradise is Closing Down runs=20 from September 12 to 16, and God=D5s Forgotten from September 19 to 23