Matthew Krouse Down the tube
When did we become a nation obsessed with yacking? Presently there are no fewer than nine chat shows on TV, four of which get repeated, consuming about 15 hours of viewing time a week.
The American ones all look the same – wide stages bulging with interesting furniture, portable screens and the obligatory fawning audience.
Perhaps they actually swap furniture – Sinbad, Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey and Roseanne Barr – because, as sure as hell, they watch each other like hawks. Rumour has it, Roseanne does everything that Oprah doesn’t, while Gayle does everything that Oprah does.
On the other hand, Sinbad allows his guests to do absolutely nothing, apart from listening to the sound of his voice. Even Ru Paul, who returns to the show on SABC1 on April 1 at 10pm, had a rough ride, being about 10 times more intelligent than his host.
The saddest aspect of the talk-show phenomenon must surely be the manner in which South African personalities have cottoned on to the idea, producing second-rate copies of a formula that has been done to death.
Our holy Pantheon – Natanil, Felicia Mabuza- Suttle and Tony Sanderson – are a trio of gaudy jewelry, embarrassing make-up and bad suits. It’s perhaps only Dali Tambo who has managed to take the formula, adapting it with a bit of sensitivity to lend credence to real issues in people’s lives.
While nothing can redeem Natanil, Mabuza- Suttle’s show has its moments. On Monday on SABC1 at 9pm, for example, she hosts David Fabricus, an internationally acclaimed transformational and motivational speaker who uses death-defying acts like firewalking to motivate the youth.
While the talk-show format seems perfectly suited to the American TV idiom, South African attempts fail because the kinds of people who have been chosen to host these programmes are some of the most boring people on Earth.
In a big moment for theatre in this country, a successful stage show has been videod for broadcast. Barney Simon’s 1990 production Lion and the Lamb, which had its third run at the Market Theatre in January this year, will air on Sunday April 4 at 9.15pm on SABC2.
A video production of the Mamu Players who, in the 1980s, created the play Township Boy, the new video production has stayed faithful to the stage production. Additional scenes, shot in Johannesburg’s Crown Mines and on Cape Town’s Noordhoek beach, have been added, cheated as biblical locations to retain the stage production’s feel.
Citing Simon’s programme note for the original production – that “God created man because he loves to hear stories” – video director Christo Leach has called lead actor John Kani’s performance in the video “his best to date”.
Perfect Easter fare, Lion and the Lamb tells the new testament story with a gospel choir and using the vocal talents of Sibongile Mngoma and Margaret Motsage.
This is the second video endeavour of the Mamu Players, who saw their 1994 production of John Ledwaba’s Jozi Jozi shot in that year for SABC3.
Leach and Ledwaba, co-producers of the Mamu Players are confident that Lion and the Lamb will also get an airing on BBC next year.
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