DIE DANS VAN DIE WATERMEID. Directed by Jason Jacobs, with Rehane Abrahams, Gretchen Ramsden, Ephraim Gordon, Elton Landrew, Abduraghmaan Adams, Celeste Matthew-Wannenburgh. At The Baxter, Golden Arrow Theatre until November 25.
THERESA SMITH reviews
Ostensibly the story of Kim (Abrahams) returning home for her grandmother’s funeral, this character-driven drama is a haunting glimpse into a neglected space – the kind of South African small town that people come from, but don’t go to.
The play riffs a little off Reza de Wet’s kind of work – seemingly normal households with deep dark secrets that explode messily at the most inopportune time. Mostly though, this is an intimate sketch of a nuclear family dealing with grief. That grief is the result of an immediate tragedy, but also the tragedy that is their lived experience.
Klein Karoo dialect
Director Jason Jacobs delivers on the promise he showed in works such as Kalahari Swan and In Wag Van, creating a tight exploration of the deleterious effects of ignoring child abuse.
Set in the out-of-the-way hamlet Willowmore, it is presented entirely in a Klein Karoo Afrikaans dialect that has probably never graced a stage before.
We are introduced to a set of characters held back by superstition and religious dogma, stymied by a lack of opportunity and dashed ambition.
So too we witness some rituals and behaviour that are inimical to the region. A practice like pennieslaan (slamming pennies – there is an excellent explanation in the programme) takes on a sinister overtone thanks to the unctuous Dominee (Adams) who attends to Kim and her brother Mills (Gordon) in a haphazard way. He wants something from them, something he cannot bring himself to say, and therefore disguises this in the formality of funeral arrangements.
Fine chains hang from the ceiling, dripping into buckets dotted around the stage, delineating the walls of Ouma Mildred’s home. The story plays out mostly in the old lady’s kitchen, with memories and wishful thinking playing out in the corridors behind the chain curtains.
The play opens with Celeste Matthews-Wannenburgh singing a koortjie as she bustles around her kitchen, and though the well cast ensemble doesn’t ever interact with the old woman as the story unfolds, her iron will dominates throughout.
“If you aren’t already ready, then you will never be ready,” Mills (Gordon) admonishes his sister when she complains that she just wants a chance to change. He is not referring to just her apparel, but what it feels like to live in this tiny forgotten corner, where customs laid down by scared, inflexible adults rule your life.
Slight surreal feel
Abrahams projects a brittle strength as Kim, the one who got away to Cape Town, but still can’t escape the chains of a difficult childhood.
Gretchen Ramsden creates a wild-child in Evie, the young girl who befriended Mills and Kim when they first settle Willowmore – an outsider herself, she nevertheless shows the siblings how to fit into the insular community.
Gordon deftly delineates with just a few gestures and a mobile face the fey Mills, who has a yen for Karel Natneus (Elton Landrew) who gets the least amount of stage time, but turns out to be a linchpin in just about everyone’s lives.
The unfolding story takes on a slight surreal feel as it moves back and forth in time. But this unsettling mood fits right in with the idea that only some supernatural agent – the titular water nymph – can hear your plea for help or save you. This superstition is after all the only thing the children had to cling to, and now they don’t even have that as adults cast adrift in a world that just doesn’t care. 4/5 out of 5 stars!
What: Die Dans van die Watermeid
Where: The Baxter Golden Arrow Theatre
When: Until November 25, 2017, plus a Saturday matinee on 11 November, 3pm
Book Tickets: R120, Early Bird R50 Special up to and including 11 November, 0861 915 8000, www.computicket.co.za, Shoprite or Checkers
Block bookings: Sharon 021 680 3962, sharon.ward@uct.ac.za, Carmen 021 680 3993, carmen.kearns@uct.ac.za
Baxter: www.baxter.co.za, facebook.com/BaxterTheatre, twitter.com/BaxterTheatre
WS
