KAROO MOOSE To 11 July.
London.
KAROO MOOSE
by Lara Foot Newton.
Tricycle Theatre To 11 July 2009.
Mon-Sat 8pm Mat Sat 4pm 8 July 2pm.
Runs 1hr 30min No interval.
TICKETS: 020 7328 1000.
www.tricycle.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 June.
From Afghanistan to South Africa; the Tricycle triumphs again.
As committees consider how to develop the arts, it’s interesting to learn this excellent drama originated when a playwright and her South African child-minder walked by a Stockholm restaurant that happened to be displaying a moose-head in its window.
Lara Foot Newton’s gave her child-minder’s name to a central character, Thomaza. She goes from being a girl to a woman, signified in a change of dress. It happens through a gang-rape, represented by the girl, ironically placed with her feet in a bowl of water, having circling men kick a football at her. A largely male play-object comes to signify male oppression.
Chuma Sopotela’s whole physique seems to change, not just because of the pan she ties to her front representing pregnancy, but in manner and attitude. She becomes tougher, more aggressive, and defensive as she abandons childhood trust. For her drunken father’s debts have landed her in this predicament.
This is his story too. And that of a gentle, loving policeman. And the others. Newton’s piece is specific in its setting, with designer Patrick Curtis suggesting the dry earth of South Africa’s desert-like Karoo. His lighting, the found objects used to tell the story and provide sounds (including the very convincing drip of moose-blood) and the placing of actors in and out of scenes create a sense of circularity, linking the Tricycle’s rectangular stage with the idea of crowds gathering to watch a story being enacted.
Yet intertwined with this is a refusal to be nailed down by specifics. Actors repeatedly comment on story-types, tales from tight-lipped men or garrulous women; at one moment of electric stillness the story’s said to stop itself in regret for the violent turn it’s taken. Stillness can be intense here – the raped Thomaza stands alone, while a single workman carries on outside, unawares.
Yet there are moments of comedy, and physical spectacle – the multi-actor Moose, or the villagers standing transfixed at the sight of this beast that’s less bestial than some villagers. And there’s a rich reflective quality as the realistic and theatrical are ultimately placed in a frame of untraceable narrative creation.
Cast: Zoleka Helesi, Mdu Kweyama, Bongile Mantsai, Thami Mbongo, Chuma Sopotela, Mfundo Tshazigane.
Director: Lara Foot Newton.
Designer/Lighting: Patrick Curtis.
Musical Director/Lyrics: Bongile Mantsai.
Musical Advisor: Dizu Plaatjies.
Choreographer: Mdu Kweyama.
Costume/Props: Koos Marais.
Vocal coach: Lesley Nott Manim.
2009-06-17 10:26:42