THEATRE: David Le Page
FARCE in South Africa has come to mean, typically, an=20 evening of imported bourgeois Anglo-Saxon capers –=20 romantic, sexual and ridiculous. However, the Anglo-Saxons=20 are not deeply into muti, and so they’ve never been=20 inspired by a love potion called Afrodizzia to an evening=20 of leap-frogging, overlapping and incongruous infatuations.=20 But a handful of fictional South Africans have, and=20 Afrodizzia, at the Pieter Roos Theatre, Johannesburg Civic,=20 relates the misadventures of this group of marginalised yet=20 brave people, in a bold experiment in creating an=20 indigenous farce.
Set in a downtown Johannesburg restaurant that has seen=20 better days, where frustrations have accumulated like bits=20 of food blocking a plughole, the play is refreshing for=20 being thoroughly South African, consistently funny, and for=20 involving characters of all races and classes who steer=20 clear of well-worn stereotypes.
George, young and new to Johannesburg, is the dishwasher at=20 Chez Eric, living in a shack in the back alley. Kenneth=20 Mncedisi Nkosi fills out this character with appealingly=20 self-conscious na=F9vete, as his attempt to realise an=20 infatuation with the establishment’s only waitress by=20 magical means launches the confusion of passions that drive=20 the play.=20
Ronel, the waitress, is played by Melinda Ferguson, who=20 does well in portraying a cliched kugel, yet in so doing=20 loses the energy needed to keep up with the other=20 characters. Ronel claims early on that she prefers animals=20 to people, a preference which could profitably lead=20 Ferguson into being more of a flake or a bitch.
The characters she needs to keep up with are Eric, the=20 perpetually apoplectic racist Swiss immigrant proprietor,=20 played with unwavering consistency by Andrew Worsdale, and=20 Linda, the chef, known in his absence as “Pierre”.=20
As Linda, Lucasta Boloi introduces with verve the gay black=20 man, an unfamiliar figure in South African theatre. Linda=20 is quite the most interesting character, full of lascivious=20 energy and incongruous poetry, as in a brief and unexpected=20 monologue about the relationship between the mouth and=20
The chaos of farce demands that a production should often=20 totter on the brink of collapse, and Afrodizzia does well=20 in never quite losing its balance, yet it is not without=20 its weak points. The use of magic as an instrument of plot=20 works, but it represents a kind of dramatic short-circuit,=20 a quick and easy way, perhaps, of avoiding a more developed=20 scenario. And parts of the plot do not seem well thought=20 out; an unexpected resurrection in the final moments leaves=20 a number of loose ends (and possibly a few mouths)=20
Writer and director Robert Colman has done well in=20 supplying the fine touch necessary to the intimate venue in=20 which it is playing. Nor, as the action ricochets to and=20 fro on the stage, does he ever leave those players outside=20 its immediate focus looking uncomfortable.
As popular theatre Afrodizzia succeeds in being quite=20 inclusive in its appeal, apparently attracting an unusually=20 large black audience where whites usually predominate. It=20 is by no means a revolutionary leap forward for indigenous=20 theatre, but then it has not attempted to be one. Audiences=20 will perhaps feel its greatest weakness is its price. The=20 Civic is charging for an hour of Afrodizzia what it charged=20 us for three hours of Arcadia.
Afrodizzia runs until May 27