THEATRE: Justin Pearce
T O call Athol Fugard’s People are Living There a=20 classic of South African theatre is the kind of cliche=20 that ought to condemn a reviewer to a diet of children’s=20 plays for the rest of eternity. So I won’t.
However, People are Living There is a fine enough play to=20 deserve putting on, even if it is clearly no longer of=20 our time (I personally can’t remember the olden days when=20 a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something=20 shocking), and the Baxter’s current revival provides a=20 gutsy reintroduction to Fugard’s earlier work.
Brenda Wood’s performance as Milly, the reluctantly=20 ageing landlady, provides the backbone of the production:=20 while it might be easy to make Milly into an=20 unequivocally sad character, Wood interprets her as a=20 fighter, evoking sympathy but never pathos. Pierre=20 Neethling is also riveting as Shorty, the unfortunate=20 postman, boxer and breeder of silkworms who occasionally=20 glimpses the horrors of his existence without being fully=20 able to understand them — and certainly not wanting to=20 understand them.
Chris Weare’s production emphasises the play’s humour,=20 and it’s often hilarious. The awkward silences are filled=20 with well-timed stage details which speak as eloquently=20 as the words themselves — the uncomfortable party=20 sequence is superb. When Milly reflects that she hasn’t=20 laughed all day, the remark is puzzling since the=20 audience has been in hysterics for the past hour — but=20 ultimately the laughter does not trivialise a reflective=20 and moving bit of theatre.
People are Living There runs at the Baxter Theatre, Cape=20 Town, till April 1