Barney Simon, theatre director and writer, born April=20 13 1932; died June 30 1995. Friends and colleagues pay=20
# Lionel Abrahams
THE last time I saw Barney Simon was in January this=20 year at the memorial function for the late Joe Slovo in=20 the Johannesburg City Hall. Among the many eulogies=20 from a rack of distinguished persons, Barney’s stood=20 out. Rising above politics, it had intimacy and warmth,=20 humanity and vision, sheer poetry and moving power.=20
One felt one had heard not only a wonderful salute of=20 friendship but a rare testimony of the spirit. And one=20 recognised that no one else could have spoken in that=20 way. This was a crystallisation of Barney’s guiding=20 visionary humanism.
The son of Jewish immigrants, he had dropped any formal=20 observance of Judaism once he was out of the family.=20 Yet he retained an affection for things Jewish, an=20 interest in Jewish writings and ideas, and a strong=20 feeling of Jewishness in his personality. In his later=20 years, his white beard and bald pate made him the image=20 of a biblical patriarch. Above all, his whole life=20 seemed to become increasingly dedicated to the=20 humanistic element of the Judeo-Christian ethic.=20 Utterly non-sectarian, he gave himself to all people –=20 but I like imagining an invisible yarmulke on that=20
Barney’s was a unique personality. He was in many ways=20 a thorough luftmensch, always close to playfulness and=20 laughter, often almost prostrated by what his=20 sensitivity revealed to him, a dreamer, a sometime=20 romantic and mystic, an often enigmatic visionary –=20 and yet, in the public realm, an achiever on a scale=20 that brought him international renown, reshaped the=20 culture of theatre in South Africa, affected racial=20 attitudes to a degree and thus, arguably, helped to=20 midwife the new South Africa.
Others will describe and assess his public career in=20 more detail, list his innumerable productions, name his=20 scripted or workshopped original creations, like Phiri,=20 Cincinati, Woza Albert and Star Bright, identify his=20 discoveries, proteges and nurslings, so many of whom=20 today blaze fabulously in our theatre firmament.
I want to focus on Barney’s motivation and methods. His=20 religion of humanity (of people rather — he didn’t=20 like abstractions) profoundly affected both the way he=20 related to individuals and the unique career he forged.=20 His sense of the inwardness of everyone he encountered=20 gave him an extraordinary potency in friendships, and=20 also as a mentor, teacher and director. Imaginatively,=20 empathically, he seemed to discover one’s inner story=20 and then, like a mother, embrace it.
This generous power lay at the root of his enormous=20 creativity. It shaped his writing of stories, his=20 editing, his venture into health education in rural=20 communities, his theatrical pioneering, his devising of=20 unconventional performance outlets to circumvent racial=20 restrictions, his workshopping, his innovation of new=20 forms, his directing, and his teaching and nurturing of=20
His fame in some of these fields must not obscure the=20 importance of what he accomplished in others — such as=20 the marvellous stories in his collection, Jo’burg,=20 Sis!; his prodigious labouring with Dugmore Boetie that=20 harvested the latter’s Familiarity is the Kingdom of=20 the Lost, a comic masterpiece of pseudo-autobiography;=20 and his inspired editing of The Classic when it was=20 South Africa’s first non-racial literary magazine.
The same approach, a pragmatic yet tender concern with=20 immediate realities, especially the reality of=20 feelings, was the original spring of his resistance to=20 the theoried restrictions and distortions of apartheid.=20 I don’t think even his consciously political docu- dramas of the embattled 1980s, like Born in the RSA and=20 Black Dog (not his best work), sprang from ideological=20 conviction, but rather from anger and distress.
Barney’s way of relating to the individual inwardness=20 of people often made for deep attachments and even=20 dependencies. Friends needed him to know what was=20 subsequently happening to them. But of course, he could=20 not continue to be central to the very many individuals=20 he cherished and influenced for a while. Thus many of=20 us, in our feelings, long ago began rehearsing for our=20 present irrevocable loss.
# The Market’s watchful eye and caring adviser
Mannie and Lesley Manim
Barney SIMON’s curiosity about life, and about people=20 living it, was insatiable. His abhorrence of all forms=20 of social injustice was the driving force behind the=20 expression of his vision. He seemed to have the ability=20 to see into the microcosm of the individual life, and=20 broadly to encompass the macrocosm into which that=20 individual life was struggling to be birthed. He was as=20 much part of the South African landscape as the Karoo,=20 or Cape Town, or Soweto, and, although he travelled=20 widely, it was here, in South Africa, that his most=20 passionate commitment lay.
His staging of The Seagull opened the Upstairs Theatre=20 at the Market in June 1976, and his brilliant=20 production of Peter Weiss’ Marat/Sade opened the Market=20 Theatre in October the same year — controversial,=20 startling work that set the tone for the years ahead.=20 Over the next two decades he directed most of the work=20 that gave the Market its purpose and reputation: South=20 African, English and Afrikaans plays; plays about black=20 people; plays about white people; mixed mosala plays=20 using the rich racial mix of South African society,=20 great European classics, the latest work from the major=20 theatre centres. Always with the same meticulous=20 attention to detail, always with a depth of insight and=20 compassion for the characters, and always at his best=20 when his sense of humour smiled through.=20
Every other director working at the Market had the=20 benefit of his watchful eye, and caring, considerate=20 advice. He took his role as artistic director seriously=20 and accepted responsibility for all the Market’s=20 productions. There were many instances of Barney’s=20 advice during the rehearsal period making the=20 difference between just another production and a major=20
He created the Market Theatre Laboratory, an essential=20 nurturing centre for young South African talent, where=20 much of the new work presented at the Market over the=20 past five years has been developed. His contribution as=20 an adviser to young theatre artists was beyond measure.
Among international successes were Born in the RSA,=20 Starbrites, Singing the Times, and most recently The=20
During the 1970s and early 1980s Barney devised and=20 directed health education projects in the Transkei,=20 KwaZulu and Winterveld. Using drama and song these=20 projects aimed to communicate life-preserving=20 information to rural, often displaced, communities.
In the 1960s he edited The Classic magazine in South=20 Africa, and in New York was associate editor of the New=20 American Review. He scripted three stories in Nadine=20 Gordimer’s Channel 4 series, Six Feet of the Country,=20 and directed City Lovers, which was shown at the New=20 York Film Festival. He wrote lyrics for many composers:=20 Mackay Davashe, Victor Ntoni, John Oakley-Smith, Sophie=20 Mgcina and Jennifer Ferguson. Texts he created with his=20 performers include People, Storytime, Cincinnati and=20 Other Places.
Barney received numerous awards for directing, and ran=20 workshops in Derry and also in mainland Britain. His=20 Medea, with the late Yvonne Bryceland, was seen at=20 Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.
Barney lives on in the lives of countless people across=20 the world — from the arid poverty of Winterveld, to=20 the theatrical capitals of Paris, New York, Dublin,=20 London, Johannesburg. We mourn him with deep pain, but=20 we will celebrate him magnificently when the seeds he=20 planted become trees bearing fruit.