STATE FRACTURE. Directed by Rob van Vuuren, with Daniel Mpilo Richards. At The Baxter Golden Arrow Theatre until 19 August, 2017.
THERESA SMITH reviews
South Africa really is a country unparalleled as a source for satirical material, and writer Mike van Graan once again mines our socio-political milieu to wince-inducing hilarious effect.
His latest offering, State Fracture, is again an excellent showcase for the triple threat that is Daniel Mpilo Richards. The singing, dancing actor deserves the awards he won for his previous foray into satire with Van Graan, Pay Back the Curry, and this State Fracture is also a stand-out performance.
While Pay Back the Curry was structured around a time traveller getting stuck in our time and commenting on what he saw, State Fracture is more … fractured.
Richards goes from skit to skit, often returning to his first skit character, Dean from Saxonwold Shebeen. The Dean character gives us some hilarious karaoke versions of Abba songs and overall the performance contains plenty of laughs.
Whip-smart commentary
A more than passing acquaintance with our political scene really helps, because every second sentence is dripping with a clever reference or whip-smart commentary.
Richards is assured on stage and the entire performance is polished. Director Rob van Vuuren’s steady hand is evidenced in Richard’s timing and excellent physical performance. He transforms into several people, from Hlaudi Motsoeneng as a sermon-delivering pastor to a brilliant portrayal of an activist chicken.
Clucking and ‘bwoking’ his way around the stage as she tells it like it is this chicken is fascinating and deserves her own online vlog.
The dark and twisted take on Thabo Mbeki’s ‘I am an African’ speech, which got a Shakespearean reading in Pay Back the Curry, now fathers two children in the form of a bitter slam poetry reading by a disillusioned-by-the-Rainbow-Nation poet and a deliciously hammy take on racial stereotypes in a Romeo and Juliet rehearsal.
All skits have a payoff line
In another skit Richards tackles the role of a woman attending a Blacks Adopted by Whites Anonymous group, but what starts off funny soon turns serious, as she points out “check your privilege” to the audience. So too as the performance moves on the skits become less haha funny and more pointedly … what? All the skits have a payoff line, but they are only loosely linked and introducing new characters means Richards loses the dramatic momentum each skit creates.
Van Graan’s clever wordplay has found a very able and impressive performer, but in no way does State Fracture tells us anything we don’t already know. Instead it invites us to laugh at the surreal nature of our fractured state and forget for a moment that this is reality, because how could it be? It’s on a stage.
What: State Fracture
Where: Baxter Theatre, Rosebank, Cape Town
When: Until August 19, 2017
Book Tickets: 0861 915 8000
WS
