I have the pleasure of being a good friend of Wilhelm Conradie. He’s a playwright, stage manager and drama lecturer living in the Cape. He has been stage manager for plays like Victory, has helped out with Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, written plays like iforest (he says that not even the poster got it right), and will soon be directing the play Aan’t Ete/Eight (which he said is about eight people eating dinner) at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown (26 June - 3 July).
Lucky for me, he’s on a sort of stage manager exchange program with the Market Theater - every so often he pops up in Joburg, looks me up, and drags me to the theater for a bit of culture. Not that I’m complaining - His shows are always excellent. So on Sunday we went to see Lara Foot-Newton’s Karoo Moose.
It tells the story about a small town somewhere in the Cape, where a young girl named Thozama lives. One day, she discovers a strange beast, and after calming it down, plays with it. It turns out to be a moose - and as something from completely outside the experience of the townspeople, it eventually becomes a catalyst for change. I won’t try to relate the rest of the story here, since without drums, some antlers, and a cabbage, I won’t be able to do it justice in the telling.
Like cave paintings, the production is primal, mystical, overwhelming and instantly understandable, no matter what language the characters happen to be speaking in at the time. Each of the actors have multiple roles (except for Thozama who only has one role in the entire play) but the acting is so skillful that it is only now that I realize that the white policeman and the black tsotsi were played by the same actor. The experience engaged the senses using sights, sounds and at one point even smells! (Remember the cabbage?)
After the show, we went to Rosebank to enjoy some sushi at Tsunami.
You can probably guess that I sat on the right side - that side of the plate is conspicuously empty. The green bits were plastic decorations, or they’d be gone as well. Having personally visited just about every sushi place in Gauteng that I know of, I really have to agree with the sign on the wall. If anything, it’s an understatement.
Any inaccuracies and mistakes are entirely my own fault, and although I will vigorously imply that they are perfectly legitimate due to creative license at first, I will eventually correct them if you let me know. All photos are courtesy of Wilhelm, who has a much better camera phone than I do. For the curious: It’s a Sony Ericsson K810i.
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