Grahastown was a bit tough this year - there were no people for one in the first week of the festival - grr. It may have been the soccer - it may have been that the 15 days of amazing was a failed experiment - it may be the recession - who knows - all I do know is we (us and just about all the shows in the first week) played to very small houses whatever the reason... The other contributing factor was the publicity - teenage bloggers and slightly odd reviews don't go a long way to getting people pushing their way into the theatre - so you can imagine my delight we we get a proper review by someone who could completely see the merit in what has been a really successful show - albeit late for Grahamstown 2010 - good well thought-out criticism can never be too late. So here it - this is what was said about our fab play - which may have had it's last showing... mmm... or not...M.C. Roodt: High Diving is back for a second season at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.
Spliff, rock ‘n' roll, fashion and a single wooden bench indefinitely ‘borrowed' from a student rehearsal room anchors this contemporary tale of love, loss and fear in a South African metropolis. It has not lost its ability to poignantly contextualise young love in a generation jaded by disembodied modes of communicating desire.Maralize, played by Deborah Da Cruz, is caught between her desire to establish herself in the publishing industry and her fear of the big city. Urged by her mother she moves to Johannesburg where she meets the failed ping-pong champion Michael, played by Roberto Pombo. Falling in love, their new shared dreams are threatened by the reality of success and fear.
High Diving fuses together cinematic imagery, physical theatre and the archaic art of shadow puppetry to cast the fleeting resonance of youthful dreams on a backdrop that supplements director Jenine Collocott's script. The dark humoured script allows the decisions that the young lovers make to play off against the pseudo-sensible, yet equally outrageous, ideals harboured for them by their parents. You start to wonder if sensibility is nothing more than an age appropriate dream that can easily turn in to a stifling nightmare.
The shadow puppetry designed by Janni Younge provides you with emotive dreamscapes that effectively deconstruct the illogical decisions of the characters and prove them to be sensible when dreams take precedence over cautionary guidelines for contentedness. The result hilariously points out what gets lost in logical reservation and what is to gain from taking a leap of faith.
The trend to combine the theatrical medium with that of cinematic projection is cleverly corrupted by the dichotomy in High Diving. The hand cut shadow puppets standing in for machine made communication authenticates the intentions of the characters and reunites the projected image with the immediacy of stage acting as a medium. The production utilises the forgotten predecessor of film to emotively elaborate on the significance of the unknown into which the characters plunge in order to obtain self-fulfilment.
Toni Morkel steals the show with her impeccable character transformations. Her detailed nuanced performance of, amongst others, a drunk, a prude and a trashy urban housewife allows you to completely forget that it is the same actress as you submerge yourself into the spectrum of the middle-aged female roles she portrays. Morkel penetrates to the essence of women redefining themselves after their children have left the home.
High Diving is a truly inspired play that revives the tale of the dreamer in a manner that acknowledges the symbolism that holds dreaming in our day and age. It finds first love in downing six tequilas and wisdom on the impartial screen of a cellphone.
High Diving is on the Fringe programme of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and is performed in the Glennie Hall theatre.High Diving was written and directed by Jenine Collocott. The puppetry was designed and performed by Janni Younge. The members of the cast are Deborah Da Cruz, James Cairns, Roberto Pombo and Toni Morkel.
M.C. Roodt
Arts Writer
roodt86@gmail.com
079 038 2687
http://roodtmc.withtank.com
Shot M.C!! Oh and of course photo credit goes to Sian Cohen :)
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