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Few things to clear up this morning…
1. Heldervue is spelt with a ‘vue’ and not a ‘view’
2. Chicks who live in Argentina are in fact South America(n) and speak Spanish, but who are not essentially Spanish?? What the fuck ever I don’t really care.
3. Oh and also, my laptop likes to mess with me, so editing posts becomes slightly hard. I have to take the existing post down, copy the original post and photos, then re-link everything and then there are those times where the font of the new post wacks out totally on me. I could just link iamlovechild here. Just like that.
So last night I went to see ‘…miskien’ at the Intimate theatre on Hiddingh Campus in Orange Street. Yes, it is true, every now and then I like to indulge in a bietjie kultuur. I have to be honest though, it’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed a play that much. The script was so beautifully written, so colloquially fluid and tender (don’t you like this word, say it out aloud – ten-derrrr) that it even managed to squeeze a tear or two out of me towards the end. ME! I know what you’re thinking, but that’s how good this play is. Forget for a second that the cast are dear to my heart and that one of this blog’s followers is the writer/director (because she knows I wouldn’t praat kak) my point is that I paid hard-earned money to see this play. After I’d seen it once already.
The actors (Gideon Lombard and Albert Pretorius) are two very, very fine performers and play Cormac and Layton respectively. Gideon plays Layton with a good introspection into a selective side of Windhoek-swigging, quick-thinking, fast-fucking South African Afrikaans men. His only problem for the duration of the play is that he’s got a huge problem with words, especially with the ones he can’t say. There’s a specifically poignant scene (and the one that stands out most in my mind) where he’s struggling so much with what he can’t say, that you think for a moment he’s going to literally puke over the piece of paper he’s holding, if that’s what it takes for him to express how he truly feels. Instead he lets out a frustrated cry and walks offstage. Heavy stuff.
Afterwards Matty and Tara were discussing the crowd reaction on various nights when Layton talks about a girl who he was “skull fucking”. Hmmm. Now bear in mind, this is a play I went to see with my mother, (who thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack which included Lenny Kravitz and Fokof) who didn’t flinch at this and who cracked up laughing when the guys were enthusiastically cheering on the Blue Bulls, because being a Bulle fan herself , she can identify. In fact, I think she enjoyed the play more than I did, now that I think about it. But Albert is definitely the winner for me. It might seem like an easy feat playing a character living a loveless, sexless, lifeless existence but there’s one scene where Layton begins to say, “Our happy hours are the highlight of my day,” (this line he’s been basically been struggling to say the entire play) and Cormac in a drunken slur unknowingly cuts him off halfway. It makes you cringe.
So once all is said and done and everything’s one and dusted, I don’t think that this is a play about two closeted gay men. No, no, no. It’s a play about two men who complete each other, who are each others best friends. It’s deep. And quite moving. And I urge you to phone THIS NUMBER 072 569 8287 and book a ticket or 5. It’s on till Saturday. Jaco my lief, thank you for pouring my Jacks so precisely, I have all the faith in the world that GO2 Production Management is going to make you a rich man.
[And I just realised now that yesterday I missed the whole 09/09/09 debacle. Asseblief. Ek gee nie om nie]
Albert and Gideon.
