iCHAMELEON with SNE DLADLA. Presented by Nick Rabinowitz, directed by Loukmaan Adams.
Caution: spoiler alert
MEGAN FURNISS reviews
There is no doubt that Sne Dladla is one powerhouse of a talent. He is hilarious, versatile, physical, sings like a dream, can even DJ and live loop, and he has an amazing rapport with his audience. He has that cute and naughty face that you can’t help adoring, and he is a master of comic timing, comic characterisation, the extended double take, and extending a metaphor. Last night’s opening night audience stood up like a tsunami to give him a standing ovation at the end of his hour long show. He really is a shooting star of a performer.
iChameleon is sold as a comedy of self-discovery. What it really is, is a collection of random, relatively unconnected comedy stand-up routines, strung together with Sne’s common attitude of wonder and amazement at the world. He moves from describing what it was like to pose for his iChameleon poster, through a complicated (and very graphic) story about needing to poo, to an incoherent and rambling story of ‘stealing as becoming a Zulu man initiation’, right through to relationships and becoming-a-dad stuff.
Stand-up vs one-man theatre
Some of his material is more successful than others; his best, in my opinion, is his utterly hilarious and laugh out loud take on KZN club mixes of well-known tracks, and his angle on DJ’s in general. It is hysterically funny. Also, his jazzy improv jam while the audience was entering, and his free-styling hello to everyone he knew, was brilliant.
But Sne’s amazing talent and skill can’t make up for what’s missing in this show. iChameleon suffers from a lack of well thought out material, rigorous direction, cutting and editing, a good structure, pace, and theatricality. It straddles the world of pure stand-up gig and one-man theatre uncomfortably, unlike the truly masterful successes in this genre, like Rob van Vuuren and James Cairns for example. Because the show is mostly, well, show, the attempt at attaching a bit of meat to it, in the form of a terribly sentimental revelation on what it is like to be an expectant father, falls horribly flat, even in the ‘interactive’ moment of asking audience members what it is they miss about being childless.
Honestly, I was a little irritated when Sne spoke reflectively about stuff he has learned looking back at his whole life (he is 26! There really isn’t a whole lot to look back on), and that stuff didn’t ring true.
Sne is genius at voices and accents. The voice he gives to his urgent poo is classic and hilarious, and his ‘deaf mother on the phone’ is a comic gem. But so often in the show he slides from KZN Zulu to Model C School to White Joburg Boy in one sentence, and the result is sloppy, and what he is saying and doing loses intention. The lack of clarity and choice is an opportunity missed, and results in the occasional political reflection about being black falling flat instead of being a powerful moment. I think all of this would be fine in a stand-up set, but in a ‘show’ I think he needed a bit more motivation and intention.
A mixed bag
Another confusing thing was the set; beautifully artistically strung up cardboard boxes, floating in the space and importantly lit, to no purpose at all. What was that all about? It had that feeling of, ‘ooh, I know the difference between stand-up and a one man solo show! It’s a set!’ about it.
So, in a nutshell, iChameleon is a mixed bag. As a showcase of Sne’s talents and versatility, it is great, but I can’t wait to see him working with others again, where he is able to commit to the process and further hone his craft and talent.
What: iChameleon
Where and when: Baxter Golden Arrow Theatre until 8 July
Book: Computicket or 086 191 58000
WS
