Faces of 1996: We speak to the Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for theatre
Thestre: Matthew Krouse
CHEWING heavily on nicotine gum, Lara Foot Newton confesses to being born and bred in Pretoria. “And Pretoria is an identity of its own,” says the 28-year-old winner of the 1996 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama.
This identity has informed much of her approach to theatre, which is moving away from the confines of parochial social realism to the freer expression of “physical theatre”.
It was the influence of two South African theatre greats which set her on this path. In 1989, while at university, she staged Paul Slabolepszy’s Over the Hill, and her treatment so impressed the playwright that he insisted they work together in the future. And they did – in 1992 forming FootPaul Productions, which staged four of Slabolepszy’s major works.
“I love doing theatre with Paul,” Foot Newton says, “because it’s always a human rugby story … I love the energy behind his plays, and the truth in which his characters operate. He’s an oke, similar in every way to the people I grew up with. There’s no thespian about him, and that’s exciting.”
She is also a product of the nurturing spirit of the late Barney Simon, whom she assisted with his puppetry collaboration, Starbrites. “I asked Barney if I could sit in on some of his rehearsals when I left drama school,” she recalls. “Eight months later he phoned me. I was at home in Pretoria with no work, and he invited me to see him the next day when he told me what his new play was about. It was Starbrites.”
Her reminiscences about Simon’s work ethic reflect on the eccentricities often associated with the theatre world: “The work, actually, was to make him coffee. And I had a little piece of paper, and every time Barney said something I wrote it down.
“I had no money, I couldn’t pay my rent. I was hoping there would be some kind of salary. Eventually, after two weeks I asked whether I would get any money for what I was doing. And he stuck his hand in his pocket and said: ‘How much do you need?’ Then, I remember, he gave me 20 bucks. Afterwards, he said he would ask the Market for a fee for me. Eventually I got my salary, and that’s where it started.”
This was also the beginning of a friendship which ended with Simon’s death earlier this year. “Barney sits in my head all day, every day. Mostly, he laughs at me for being so serious about everything.”
Her seriousness has, however, served her well – she is currently resident director of the Market Theatre. This commitment entails directing a minimum of three plays a year, as well as strategising for the Market’s venues. She describes her role as “rather anarchic and
‘We have to make theatre exciting,” Foot Newton advises, “and we have to understand what it is that people want to see. I go to a techno rave and see 5 000 people paying 30 bucks a head, and there’s some excitement. There’s something similar to performance art in techno raves …
“My mission is to understand what it is that excites people, and how we are going to communicate with them. As for realism, unless it’s incredibly well structured, by a brilliant playwright, an intellectual play is not going to hold anyone’s attention. I don’t want to do
What does she want to do instead?
Her recent work, Womb Tide, ushered in a new formalism which she plans to explore further. She describes the play as “about a couple who fall in love, an eccentric couple. She’s a little off the wall, she feeds the ducks in her nightie. He’s a buffoon with a heart, someone who struggles to communicate. She falls pregnant and they lose their child. She goes mad and out of desperation he steals a child. They live as a family. Music is brought into their life through this child. They begin to be able to communicate. Finally they get found out and the child gets taken away from them.
“The way of storytelling in Womb Tide is what excited me. It was very image-based and
The theme was also a source of excitement: “For the rest of my life I could make plays just about the family,” she says. “I have a Jekyll and Hyde relationship with the family. On the one hand I feel it’s the most important microcosm. But on the other hand, I think families are places where taboos and hurts and pains atrophy, and eat you up.”
Next, Foot Newton is planning a “techno circus” – “a performance piece with loud, exciting, passionate music … an exciting visual feast juxtaposing art and technology.”
Foot Newton’s formula for success, she claims, is that she “looks for a story, not for an issue”. It is an attribute which is serving her well. And with this most recent award, she will be even better positioned to further the contribution to theatre she has already made.