JULIE BARKER speaks to performer Godfrey Johnson about his work
GODFREY JOHNSON, composer, writer, and cabaret artist, is both brilliant and e ccentric. During his varied career he has accompanied Irit Noble in her show B arstool Named Desire, as well as Bambi Kellerman, the neo-Nazi cabaret artist created by Pieter-Dirk Uys. Viewed by some as controversial and by others as o bscure, there is no doubt that his is an awesome talent. He moves effortlessly through a
variety of styles in music from opera to boere pop.
Alice Sal Regkom is Johnson’s most recent show, a mixture of humour and pathos with an entirely self-penned score. It was originally directed by James Blanc
kenberg, and tells the story of Alice, a coloured transvestite prostitute.
The show was originally inspired by a bergie who lived alongside Johnson’s mot her’s house when he was a child. Openly homosexual, the bergie claimed to have been one of the drag queens that attended the Moffie Balls of the 1950s and 1
960s in Salt River, Woodstock and Maitland. Johnson became intrigued by what h ad become of these transvestites and after some research discovered that some were livin g in Mitchell’s Plain, working as hairdressers – eccentric and faded testimoni es to ageing glamour.
Johnson is concerned with the outcasts, the unwanted in society. They become c lowns that communicate their lives in a tragi-comic way. Blonde Juan, directed by Megan Choritz, is the story of an incompetent Spanish actor who finds hims
elf in Cape Town. The Importance of Being Harnessed deals with a boy whose par ents desert him when he tells them he has wings. The only people who can see h is wings a re degenerates and street people.
Something that informs Johnson’s taste for the marginalised in society was his discovery that his mother was born coloured and reclassified white when he wa
s a child. He only realised this in his early teens. This theme lies at the he art of Alice Sal Regkom and becomes a metaphor for all that is hidden in South African society.
”When my mother was reclassified she broke away from her family to protect me. It was the 1970s, the height of apartheid, and so I had no contact, no knowle
dge of one side of my family. I did not know of their existence. Even today I have never met them. I think that they are fishermen in Saldana and originally came from Lavender Hill, but I can’t be sure.”
Johnson is reconciled with his past, and feels that he is lucky because of it. He also believes that his experience of history is a commonplace occurrence,
and that this kind of history needs to be explored and exposed as it has cause d deep fissures in families and entire communities.
He relates an incident that also fed into the creation of Alice. He saw a tran svestite prostitute attempting to get into a well-known gay club only to be fo rcibly removed while ”white middle class” gays turned their backs. ”People are still turning their backs. Turning their backs on coloureds, and the gay comm
unity turn their backs on transvestites. Where will it end? Alice is a coloure d transves tite. She is a bad singer, an appalling performer. She’s unpopular and unglamo rous. She’s the person you do not want to know!”
Ultimately Johnson wants Alice to be a victorious survivor. She is also reclas sified white but turns it down. She remains in Mitchell’s Plain as that is whe re she feels most comfortable. Her brother is also reclassified and disowns Al ice.
”When I first started performing the show people would come to me afterwards a nd thank me for exploring this kind of material. Some of them were very emotio nal and pleased that I’d acknowledged something they could obviously relate to .”
Alice Sal Regkom has proved to be immensely popular – so popular that Alice re turns in Alice’s Bedtime Stories. This is Alice on the up- and-up, says Johnso n. She’ll even be singing some cover versions.
Johnson believes that his main objective is to entertain people – through musi c, humour, pathos. He is also passionately committed to developing and promoti ng original South African music, especially music theatre and cabaret.
Most of Johnson’s professional stage appearances have been in original local w ork – if not his own then someone else’s. This is no mean feat for a person wh o’s been in the spotlight for six years. But this will change when he tours a new show up the West Coast called From Venus To Valentine. The show features s ongs by Cole Porter and George Gershwin, and other composers that have inspire d him. ”I never thought I’d be capable of, or would have the opportunity to perform my o wn material, sing my own songs, play the piano. When it works, all hangs toget her, it’s very invigorating.” It’s also very invigorating to watch.
Alice Sal Regkom will be performed at the Klein Karoo Fees in Oudtshoorn from March 29 to April 5