Stephen Gray
WOZA SHAKESPEARE!: Titus Andronicus in South Africa by Antony Sher and Gregory Doran (Methuen, R130)
THERE is a fine South African exclamation to express human sympathy – “ag shame”. Said with a certain tone, it also means “look what you deserve!” Here are poor Tony and Greg, mounting their big Shakespeare number in Africa, and didn’t they have a tough time? Well, ag shame.
For those who actually witnessed their baleful, misguided Titus Andronicus – not many, for the hordes stayed away – clearly something basic had not been thought through. Once you begin hoping Lavinia will have more than her hands chopped off, you know it’s trouble.
What was the great polymath, Antony Sher, in daft Afrikaner regalia, doing in a supermarket trolley – checking if the meat was off? Often incomprehensible, their Titus Andronicus was a poor show.
Now, to have the book of it, with lots of cheap retaliation for their bad reception, is almost too much. Sher alternates with his director-lover, bouncing it all between their own reflecting mirrors, quoting one another (indeed, confusing one another). Clearly an inviolable pair.
But they never seem to pick up the import of their double-act. That other queen (of England, who was touring simultaneously) and the Sher-Doran performance were flops because South Africans, now world leaders in democratic procedures, have become bored with mouldy royals patronising them.
Some would say using “Woza” (meaning come or arise) in their title takes nerve, but as Sher is South African-born, perhaps he has the right. My own feeling is that, since he doesn’t bother to spell any other South African word correctly, he should forfeit it. But that is not a serious matter.
What is is that, out of absolutely nothing but talent, the original Woza Albert! kept all of unfunded, censorship-darkened anti- apartheid theatre going for decades. All the Sher-Doran mess has managed to do is collapse it. Our Market Theatre still has not recovered.
Not that you would expect a subtlety like that from their self-regarding twaddle. The sketches (by Sher) are quite cute. Shame indeed.