FROM KOE’SIESTES TO KNEIDLACH. Written and performed by Chantal Stanfield. Directed by Megan Furniss. Lighting design Megan Furniss and Alfred Rietmann.
KAREN RUTTER reviews
So what happens when a Shiksa Sista meets a Jo’burg Jew and they fall in love? If one of them happens to be a professional actor, she skilfully turns the romance into a successful stage play. Chantal Stanfield’s From Koe’siestes to Kneidlach takes audiences on a gentle journey through the ups, downs and in-betweens of navigating a cross-cultural relationship.
Her personal experiences translate into an accessible and inclusive production which most people, regardless of background, will easily relate to. It’s warm, it’s funny, it’s interesting – and it doesn’t shy away from issues, either.
Using an intimate, story-telling environment to narrate her tale, Stanfield recounts how she “met” her future husband, award-winning musician and vocal coach RJ Benjamin, via social media. Tweeting led to meeting, and next thing Stanfield, a self-titled coloured from the Cape Flats, found herself going to Friday night shabbos with the Benjamin family. And eating gefilte fish. And chatting to her first Rabbi. And attending her first bris.
As she recounts her experiences with a mix of bewilderment, humour and sass, we are drawn into a narrative that is on the surface about difference – but is ultimately about breaking down boundaries. And how the world is richer place for this. It’s best demonstrated in a scene where Stanfield’s gay friend adopts Yiddish into his regular Gayle (gay slang) vocabulary. To die for!
Laughing with, not at
Stanfield herself takes on this part, and all other roles in the show, including the voice of her omniprescent mother and the numerous members of Benjamin’s family. She slips fluidly from first-person narrative to inhabiting the accent and/or attitude of the different characters who populate this kosher comedy. What’s important is that they never feel like stereotypes, which would be all too easy to rely on for quick laughs. The “cultural divide” in entertainment has long been a source of uneasy cariacatures, but From Koe’siestes to Kneidlach doesn’t indulge this. It’s a case of laughing with, not at.
Stanfield, who has a respectable TV career, is completely at home in what is hard to believe is her first one-person piece. She’s engaging, witty, and physically at ease, and there’s a completely genuine edge to her performance. Major credit to director Megan Furniss for drawing out a fine performance from Stanfield, and for keeping a combo of taut and relaxed hands on the reins – the show briskly clocks in at just over an hour, and feels neither hurried nor drawn out.
From Koe’siestes to Kneidlach is a sweet, clever, funny and thoroughly contemporary production which is a love story on more than one level. And while it may sound funny to say a show about matzah balls makes for great entertainment over the Christmas season – it really does!
What: From Koe’siestes To Kneidlach
Where, when: Auto and General, Theatre on the Square, Sandton from 12 to 23 June 2018
Book: Computicket
WS
