In a society reeling from violence, how appropriate or helpful is it to see violence depicted on stage? Directors, writers and actors at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown believe that it might not be pretty but it is necessary.
The Hamlet Machine, adapted for a South African audience, emphasises the violence and brutality already present in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Director Wesley Deintje, who employs a raw physicality of movement to make violence tangible, believes that violence and social decay is not country specific. ”I’m not glorifying violence or trying to make it sexy,” he says. ”Violence is a very real epidemic of our times.”
Audience aversion will be tested during the graphic rape of Queen Gertrude and the merciless slaughter of the chorus — white bodies slammed down on a bare table, just to pick themselves up and repeat the process. ”The actors have bled for this production,” says Deintje. ”Their dedication is incredible.”
He acknowledges that there is a fine line between gratuitous violence and raising awareness, yet he strongly believes that ”the minute you pretend that abuse, rape, negligence does not happen, there is a problem”. He explains that he ultimately tried to expose things that he had heard and seen. ”The way women are perceived and spoken of in our patriarchal culture is appalling,” he says.
While shock tactics can be used to combat audience apathy, Deintje is attempting to strike a ”balance between art and social consciousness”.
”People assume that violence is a class issue,” he says, but The Hamlet Machine emphasises that anyone can be both a perpetrator and victim of violence. Deintje wants the audience to be affected by the acts on stage: ”They must leave and not wish to be a part of what they have witnessed.”
He openly admits that his theatre is not easy to digest. ”When I see people flinching, it shows their humanity,” he says.
The solo performance by Styx Mokejane in Silent Cries highlights the psychological violence that is a part of our society. Mokejane juxtaposes the characters of the recently matriculated TK and the previously imprisoned Bra Touch. Both characters are frustrated by their inability to improve their current circumstances, and the audience is privy to this inner struggle.
Mokejane wrote this play over two years and discloses that much of the content is autobiographical. He says that he was able to deal with his personal experiences by ”putting pain on paper”. Even so, he was affected by the psychological and physical demands as a performer.
”This show does disturb me,” he says, ”especially when I’m demonstrating the escalation of frustration.” The psychological violence illustrated in Silent Cries is an abuse that is perpetuated by the self, on the self. Mokejane wished for the audience to see this self-defeating process and recognise that ”a person’s circumstances do not have to define the person”.
A Mansion of Hope, written and directed by Sifiso Mathenjwa, explores the close link between violence and racism. This two-man play depicts violent abuse that occurred during apartheid as well as raising the overarching question of what should happen after democracy.
Thato ”Wonderboy” Kakole plays both a racist farmer and an abused worker, which he admits can be challenging at times. ”It’s difficult to work up your emotions to that extent,” he says, ”but what I do on stage stays on stage.”
Mathenjwa believes that one must be careful when addressing the subject of racism, but that ”physical violence on stage is necessary. People need to deal with violence and racism in a real way.”
Mathenjwa did not write A Mansion of Hope for the purpose of it being a crowd pleaser. ”It’s about the message rather than the money,” he says.
People ask him why he does not focus on the future rather than the past. ”Violence is part of our society,” he answers, ”and racism still occurs, it’s just labelled differently.”
Kakole agrees that the subjects of HIV and poverty are equally important; however, the recent xenophobic attacks are an indication that racism is alive and well.
This article was first published in Cue, the National Arts Festival newspaper
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