This year’s national Vita Awards for theatre celebrate the past, argues MATTHEW KROUSE
THE FNB Vita National Theatre Awards, like any extended family gathering, pay homage to founding fathers, and stroke their fledglings, encouraging them to follow traditional paths.
The 1994/1995 award-winners are testimony to a developing consensus between fundis, audiences and practitioners. Apparently, what is appreciated most are well-rendered versions of the tried and tested. Old chestnuts like Equus, Nongogo, Sophiatown and The Island were nominated for Play of the Year. Following the trend towards revivals, The Island took this main award.
Revivals of plays that were once controversial and officially challenging do perform a necessary function since we are able, in their restaging, to weigh up how far we’ve come in our theatre’s development. Today, one supposes, the nudity of Equus is no longer its spicy drawcard. Both Sophiatown and The Island give us ample reason to reflect on the historical moments portrayed, with appropriate hindsight — good did, after all, triumph over evil.
Simultaneously, we remember how the productions went all out to inspire audiences to do a little extra, in fighting apartheid. Whether this was protest theatre, or theatre of defiance, is no longer important. Like in museums, what is important is the preservation of memory, under hot lights, of an unhappy existence. By celebrating the revival, the award sponsor acknowledges the historical role of the play, which finally reaps its just rewards.
As a result, a production like Sophiatown received many Vita nominations, and its performers Ramolao Makhene and Daphne Hlomuka received awards in their supporting roles.
On the other hand, our colonial roots are warmly recollected. Acting English is, after all, also part of our historical repetoire. The contradiction here is that while we continue to trash apartheid, we revel in the ways of the old Empire. And so the “Pot Roast” team also got accolades, with Mark Graham getting Director of the Year for Travels with my Aunt and Hamlet, while Michael Atkinson got Performance of the Year for King George in The Madness of George III. Actress of the Year is Wilna Snyman for her performance in Sweet Sorrows.
The style of reviving nostalgic musical content is celebrated with awards being given to A Handful of Keys for Musical Theatre Production of the Year and Musical Theatre Performer going to that production’s Ian von Memerty.
It is only perhaps in comedy that our theatre is looking slightly redecorated, with some new names being added after nomination stalwarts. However, comedy veteran Paul Slabolepszy and his cast of Heel Against the Head received the Tonight/FNB Award, over Pieter-Dirk Uys.
Playwright of the Year went to Andrew Buckland, and Production of a New South African Play went to dance theatre for Capab/Jazzart’s Medea.
The year’s best technicians were set designer Marthinus Basson, lighting designer Mannnie Manim and costume designer Peter Cazalet.
Although the late Barney Simon’s last production, East — also a well-worn revival — received no national nominations, his contribution is remembered with a special donation made to the Market Theatre Laboratory. In addition, he received the Moyra Fine Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatrical Life, posthumously.
This year’s FNB/Vita National Theatre Awards winners, in many instances, celebrated history. In the year ahead, perhaps they will celebrate the present, or even the future. The onus is on the industry to place appropriate emphasis on important moments in time, guiding the interests of audiences at large.