THEATRE: Guy Willoughby=20
IT’S nearly two months to go before the World Rugby Cup,=20 and Paul Slabolepszy’s getting in early. The country’s=20 chief analyst of the white male ego couldn’t hope for a=20 better setting, and in his rumbustious new comedy Heel=20 Against the Head (at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town) he=20 scores nearly as many winning points as the mighty Naas=20
Slabolepszy has explored the sports-buddy syndrome=20 before — seriously in Over the Hill (rugger), light- heartedly in Under the Oaks (cricket). Heel Against the=20 Head is quite deliberately conceived as farce, a new=20 departure for this writer, so the tone is sunny and the=20 antics of the Slab’s typical ageing boykies never border=20 on the tragic.=20
The action takes place in a Holiday Inn-type hostelry in=20 Johannesburg, to which one Crispin Wentzel and his mate=20 Tjokkie (played by — guess who — Paul Slab and Bill=20 Flynn) have hastened from Phalaborwa for the quarter- finals at Ellis Park. Lots of farcical confusion=20 follows, chiefly involving Crispin’s wife Celeste=20 (Shirley Johnston) and a worldly-wise gal called Angela=20 (Lucinda Hooley).=20
Slabolepszy and Flynn, that finely-honed comic duo, are=20 the chief delight of this production. Flynn’s bumbly=20 dim-wit, latest in a line that takes us back to Saturday=20 Night at the Palace, has screamingly funny moments;=20 Slabolepszy himself, in top actorly form, cheerfully=20 celebrates the local male talent for never growing up.=20
Like some white-socked, paunchy Peter Pan, his 40- something Crispin Wentzel treats his Rugby Cup jol as a=20 trip to Neverland — with racy magazines, escort ladies=20 and endless booze standing in for jelly and cake. It’s a=20 great performance, full of cleverly-noted nuances, and=20 his scaley slip-on shoes deserve an award in their own=20
As with so many of the Slab’s dramatic successes, the=20 lingo his characters gabble at each other makes the=20 play. Slabolepszy’s homely creatures try and live within=20 the limits of cliche, but the way they revivify shopworn=20 phrases to fit the occasion is the stuff of true comedy.=20
As a total entertainment, Heel Against the Head has some=20 clumsy features. For no good reason, the farcical muddle=20 involves a Chinese ninja businessman (played in a manic=20 oriental frenzy by Gideon Emery); this makes for some=20 funny comic moments, but they turn on rather silly=20 racial stereotyping.=20
The important confusions that propel the plot are all=20 solved by interval, and we come back for some rather=20 earnest girls’ talk about the naughty boys, before=20 getting on to the snappy, amusing resolution. Some sharp=20 cuts in the text are needed after interval — and I’m=20 not sure an interval is needed either.=20
That girls’ talk, awkward as it is, points to something=20 else interesting in this lightweight farce. Slabolepszy=20 is trying to bring his women centre-stage, to question=20 their subservience to men, and to hasten the end of the=20 ous-only partnership that is usually the nub of his=20
This is a promising development, but in Heel Against the=20 Head it makes for some awkward patches in the writing.=20 Slab’s women aren’t as credible, as defined, as his men.=20 And why do the boys get all the good jokes?=20
As both Rugby Cup entertainment and amusing new drama,=20 Heel Against the Head should have widespread appeal –=20 provided some judicious cuts are made in the second=20 half. (Let’s hope these are effected before it hits=20 Jo’burg in time for the Cup.) Either way, you’re bound=20 to love the coruscating stage teamwork of Bill Flynn and=20 Paul Slabolepszy.=20