Attachments, now showing at The Dance Factory, is a three-year-old show that has become one of South Africa’s premiere physical-theatre productions.
But with physical theatre hovering at the edge of mainstream tastes, one has to wonder what place it still has on the South African stage.
Athena Mazarakis, a lecturer in physical theatre at Wits University, appears in Attachments (nos 1 to 7) with Craig Morris. The pair, along with director Gerard Bester, speak frankly about the trials of pursuing their craft, with Bester revealing that ticket sales have been sub-par this season.
‘This isn’t that kind of [popular] show, this isn’t The Lion King,†says Bester. ‘In 2005 we broke the box-office record at The Dance Factory and we were hoping to tap into that audience again, but this time we faced a tight marketing and advertising budget,†he says.
This popularity shift is a microcosm of the troubles physical theatre has met in South Africa. Last year the First Physical Theatre Company, based at Rhodes University, closed down after its benefactor, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, closed. Morris and Mazarakis are both alumni of the company along with the likes of Rob van Vuuren (Twakkie of The Most Amazing Show) and this year’s Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance winner, Acty Tang.
Attachments, which debuted in 2004, was moved from the main festival programme at the National Festival of the Arts in 2005 to the fringe programme this year.
‘I think the case of First Physical really reflects South Africa’s situation — it’s a matter of funding, or lack thereof,†says Mazarakis.
Morris jokingly refers to ‘the hordes that flock to see the show†being disappointed by this lack of recognition to which Mazarakis, equally jovial, retorts ‘yeah, hordes of eightâ€.
The news is not all bad, however. Attachments began life as a three-piece ensemble, but was extended to seven at this year’s Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, where it received high praise. Despite having closed, First Physical has been resilient, working on a project-by-project basis and has been commissioned by the FNB Dance Umbrella to produce more shows both this year and next year.
Mazarakis shares that her classes have been growing in number over the years, though raising ‘ethical questions†around how to train performers for a trying industry. ‘I hope they’ll go out there and find creative ways. I’ve had to shift the focus away from the performance and focus on [encouraging students to be] ‘makers’.†By which Mazarakis means placing emphasis on fostering original thinking.
The performers are also optimistic about the universal appeal of physical theatre and its unique position in South Africa.
‘In physical theatre, there is a focus paid to the physical aspect of the performance. When watching bodies in space, and in a confined space, that impact — that physicality — engages you as an audience. There’s a purity in the almost primal response we all have when we see something physical,†says Morris.
‘Conventionally, dancers were bodies in space but there was a certain conformity to the movement. Now [in physical theatre] there’s a new chance for you as an individual to define your space.â€
Mazarakis, clearly the academic, takes a McLuhan approach: ‘The body as medium or body as language precedes what traditional theatre brings through text. It is often able to make bold statements before other modes have started to do that, before words are even spoken.â€
On what this medium brings to South Africa, Bester notes that dance really took off in this country during the struggle of the 1980s. ‘They began to interrogate the barriers of language, a hurdle that our physical bodies are able to overcome.â€
‘In a country with 11 official languages, the one language that defines us all is our body language,†adds Morris.
Attachments takes the audience through the very physical motions of a couple ‘going through the motions†— a theme universally understood and identified with.
Attachments runs until November 11 at The Dance Factory in Newtown. Book through Computicket.