THEATRE: David le Page=20
ANTONY Sher would have had a field day at the Windybrow=20 Centre for the Arts, currently hosting a season of New=20 South African Plays. For this is a theatre complex where=20 plays occasionally have to be cancelled, on evenings when=20 cast outnumbers audience. This is not always a fair=20 process. A one-person play that this reviewer attempted to=20 see all by himself was cancelled without establishing (a=20 set of scales might have been useful) whether cast was=20 indeed larger than audience. Yet the same evening saw yet=20 another play absolutely packed out.=20
Admittedly the audience might not have fitted Sher’s=20 ideals: it consisted largely of street children, who would=20 not have been there without some quiet encouragement from=20 the Windybrow. Yet encouragement, rather than complaint, is=20 far more their style.=20
The Windybrow’s audience profile has changed as the=20 demographics of Hillbrow have shifted. Yet their being an=20 autonomous department of Pact has enabled them to survive,=20 and of late, they are busier than ever. An active=20 development programme means community groups, semi- professional and professional actors are drawing on the=20 resources they offer.=20
The centre has found new audiences by exploring the=20 immediate community. A number of old age homes in the area,=20 for example, are providing audiences, especially for the=20 current production of Black Age, a play about the struggles=20 of pensioners in South Africa.=20
Regularly packed out is A Crowd in the Clouds. It’s a=20 morality play; the title refers to the consequences of drug=20 addiction. The characters include a drug dealer from=20 elsewhere in Africa, a would-be actress, a naive Christian,=20 the angel Gabriel and God, whose imminence is heralded by a=20 cacophony that would strike the fear of Him into the most=20 hardened of atheists. Jabulani Nkosi is priceless as an=20 Afrikaans caretaker. The script is very tight in some=20 places, and rather laborious in others, relying too much on=20 explanatory monologues, but it adds up to an entertaining=20 and harrowing drama.=20
The festival includes five other plays, including one from=20 Egypt, Marital Bliss, written by Abdel Moneim Selim, and=20 here directed by Michael McCabe. Vivian Moodley appears in=20 Cast the First Stone. Moodley is the director of Got Green=20 Chillies Makoti, at the Civic Theatre.=20
Very quietly, the Windybrow is encouraging people who may=20 well come to be leaders in South African theatre as it=20 reshapes itself over the years. If the centre’s plans are=20 realised, they’ll at least stand a chance.=20
New South African Plays run until June 3=20