Reports of the death of stagecraft are exaggerated, says Brent Meersman. He turns the footlights on SA’s playmakers who are getting it right.
Modern theatre is at its best when it delivers the kind of magic only live performance can give an audience. Aware of this, theatremakers have explored and developed “physical theatre”, with the imaginative use of props, mime, a proliferation of multimedia and one-person format shows, and actors putting each other out of jobs by playing multiple roles. Economics has played a determining role.
With the exception of a trooper like Athol Fugard (now 80), a generation of English South African playwrights has fallen silent or seen only occasional revivals of their work.
Or is it simply that, compared to modern cable-TV series, the well-made play has had its day and is as boring and creaky as those 1940s black-and-white films?
Having seen many brilliant contemporary plays, I don’t think so. The well-made play, though rare, is a relief, a human affirmation in a digitised, distracted, sensationalised age.
It may be true that South African scriptwriting is going through an awkward phase: the skills that fashion a well-made play are horribly blunt, and writers seem trapped in parochial circumstances; emerging theatre styles are a work in progress as they battle to figure out successful new forms.
A handful of playmakers, however, seem to be getting something right with audiences.
Mike van Graan, Mbongeni Ngema, Lara Foot, Neil Coppen and Omphile Molusi are the focus of Brent Meersman’s incisive review of SA’s playmakers.
Full Story via Mail & Guardian
