Charl Blignaut On stage in Johannesburg
Pieter Toerien’s Alhambra theatre is the perfect setting for a South African staging of Alan Ayckbourne’s classic Absurd Person Singular. It’s a trademark Ayckbourne nudge-nudge wink-wink; “oh-don’t-worry- about-Tom-he’s-out-there-playing-with-Dick
kind of farce”, and the three couples that inhabit the three kitchens during three Christmas eve parties in the play are pretty similar to the audience at the Alhambra.
That’s the whole idea. The joke’s on us; the middle-class to comfortable couples and the games we play to cover up the smallest indiscretion; the bizarre code of etiquette that governs our socialising.
That’s where Ayckbourne’s always been at his best – getting us to laugh at ourselves running away at ourselves. Sure, it’s mindless, entertaining comedy, but every time I wanted to get snobbish about it all, I found myself remembering why it is that Ayckbourne began writing plays in the first place: one rainy summer at a seaside resort he decided he’d cheer up the holidaymakers by mounting a little amdram. Since then he has produced almost two dozen plays, often with the same premise in mind.
In Absurd Person Singular, Ayckbourne moves his characters from the comfort zones they know and throws them into deeper waters, watching them make utter fools of themselves while they think they are retaining their dignity.
All of this is well and good, but if you’re going to stage a fluffy farce, then at least you can stage it immaculately. So, yet again, it’s hats off to Rex Garner. When critics call him South Africa’s “master farceur” they do so for good reason. As an actor and as a director, he takes Ayckbourne’s text and characters and then seamlessly flings them about the stage as if he is choreographing an extremely intricate juggling act.
To these ends he is supported, with aplomb, by the divine Clare Marshall. Every time she enters the stage, an invisible current starts flowing between her and Garner and the comedy just clicks into place.
Slugging back her gin and tonic, she stumbles through the various kitchens, blissfully unaware of the back-scratching business deals that are going down between the three husbands in the play. By the time she flings aside her glass and opts to swig directly from the bottle, it has become pretty evident that, though she’s a mess and an alcoholic, she’s also the only happy person around.
Don’t do Absurd Person Singular if you enjoyed Shopping and Fucking. Go see it if you can get into a good old-fashioned belly laugh.
Absurd Person Singular runs at the Alhambra Theatre until August 1