The White Man’s Guide to Sacrifice is a sharp, smart comedy with a seriously painful underbelly – it makes for great theatre!
This dark farce is written and directed by Baxter artists-in-residence, Alex McCarthy, who is also responsible for the set design. The cast is made up of Nathan Lynn (Raiders the Musical, The Open Couple, Pride and Prejudice), Cameron Robertson (Cry Havoc, Raiders the Musical, Pride and Prejudice), Sive Gubangxa (Heart of Redness, After Dark in the Groot Marico, UHM) and Jazzara Jaslyn (Every Beautiful Thing, Mephisto, A Lie of the Mind).
The quirky and hilarious story centres around two young men, Fork and Scholtz, who have just been accepted into the Lamborghini Club. This has been their dream for as long as they can remember. With the club’s connections, they will be fast-tracked up the corporate ladder and welcomed into the arms of luxury. In three days important club members are coming over for the party of a lifetime, and these two wannabees have no choice but to impress.
However, there is a problem.
The two young, white South African men discover a living, breathing, defecating cow in their new and expensive apartment. But just how exactly did the cow get there? After all, this is something that only happens to taxi and bus people, not to Lambourgini people! The club dare not find out. As ancestors, business card-wielding entrepreneurs and powerful personal assistants become involved, the two friends are presented with a choice: sacrifice their place in the Lambourgini Club, or seal their position in the blood of an innocent animal.
Last year Alex graduated from UCT’s Drama Department receiving the Mavis Taylor award for theatre-making. His focus is on writing and directing for the stage. He has directed Him, Her and It (2013) and Peter Wilhelm’s Pyro Protram (2014). Along with Callum Tilbury, he won the Best Writing award for UHM (2014) at the National Arts Festival Student Festival which was later performed at Artscape and at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK). Most recently he wrote and directed Fog Ducking and Rainshark.
WHAT & WHEN: The White Man’s Guide to Sacrifice runs until 10 October at 7pm nightly. There is an age restriction of 15 years.
WHERE: Golden Arrow Studio, Baxter Theatre Centre, Main Rd, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700
TICKETS: R100 at Computicket or T 0861 915 8000, or at any Shoprite Checkers outlets
NOTE: Baxter 2015 artists-in-residence Mdu Kweyama showcases her new work – Reza de Wet’s Missing – from 14 to 24 October at the Baxter Golden Arrow at 7pm.
The staging of this season has been made possible through the support of the Rolf-Stephan Nussbaum Foundation and the Arts and Culture Trust. It has afforded the young theatre-makers the opportunity to ‘incubate’ and develop their work, and comes as a culmination of the process during their tenure as artists-in-residence at the Baxter. Earlier this year they collaborated with dancers Grant van Ster and Shaun Oelf to present Most Honest Man, as part of a double bill of dance, with dramaturgy by McCarthy and direction and choreography by Kweyama.
PHOTO CREDIT: Cameron Robertson, Nathan Lynn in The White Man’s Guide to Sacrifice, pic by Oscar ‘O Ryan
