April 24, 2006
By Lucille Davie
ISSUES like hunger, greed, good-neighbourliness and ancestors will always be with us. But the superb acting and special effects in The Hungry bring these concerns alive in a different way that lingers for a while.
The play, on at the Market Theatre, is co-written by talented acting duo Ellis Pearson and Bheki Mkhwane. It is full of charm and pathos – and a bit of nonsense.
It takes a look at the age-old vices of greed and manipulation, with a smooth-talking man easily taking advantage of a traditional rural village, both parties demonstrating their hunger in different ways.
Pearson is a consummate actor and mime artist, taking on multiple roles and transforming himself, with a rigid bend of his back, into an old man, or, with a carefully timed flick of his arm behind him, into a sick and very convincing cow. It is hard to keep one's eyes off him – his face is so full of changing emotions.
Mkhwane too does a fine job, also switching roles and presenting his characters with feeling and compassion.
The two, both Durbanites, have performed together for 15 years and, individually and as a duo, have been nominated for more than 20 awards, in categories from designer to director, writer and, of course, actor. Among the most prestigious awards they've won are the M-Net All Africa Film Award, the FNB Vita Award, the Standard Bank Pick of the Fringe Award, and the Fleur Du Cap Best Performance Award.
Pearson describes himself on the duo's website as someone who is devoted to painting, creating music, inventing contraptions and performing as a magician.
"Since 1992 Ellis has worked very successfully as a freelance actor, director, painter (with two one-man exhibitions to date), multi-instrumental musician and composer," it reads. "He has won two major awards as a film actor and has a passion to write and direct films, but his true ambition is to master the backward aerial somersault."
In 1998 Pearson appeared in Paljas, a local film, in which he played a clown in an abandoned circus train that is diverted into a backwater town. He befriends a family and teaches their troubled son magic, transforming the family but threatening the staid routine of the local dorp.
Mkhwane also has an impressive acting background, as indicated on the website: "From street-wise to worldly-wise, Bheki's great range as an actor has enabled him to work with major theatre companies (encompassing a range of plays from Shakespeare to Athol Fugard), host television shows, work as a film actor, develop his superb talent as a story teller and so tour the world with his own work."
Both have written, produced and acted in a long list of plays including Boy called Rubbish, Squawk, Holy Moses, Cello to Checkers Packet, Big Udder and Skadonk.
They perform mostly where performances are sponsored so that they can reach economically depressed areas, and, of course, at all the annual arts festivals around the country. The two have toured to Canada, London, Singapore, India, Germany, Norway, Botswana and Scotland, among other countries.
In The Hungry, the stage is a circle, the audience positioned around it, with buckets hanging from the ceiling. Candles, various musical instruments, long pipes and a makeshift but grand wooden chair make up the props.
The actors themselves produce a wealth of sounds – whistles, hisses, chickens, pigeons and very good sound-alike moos and grunts indicative of the village's herd being taken away.
The setting is the Sinako village, into which a stranger appears. Mr Pumpkin Man is easily persuaded by the stranger, handing over the village's wealth and future. Pearson and Mkhwane, as Barney and Dumi, are two villagers who invent things, opening the play with their "moving bucket" invention, and ending with the bucket becoming something more wondrous.
Two of the magical special effects are pegs on Pearson's face and clothing, representing locusts; the other is the sound of corn kernels dropped on the tight surfaces of tambourines to imitate rain – very effective.
The play is bursting with wonderful music, exuberant acting – and even a live chicken. It runs until 7 May at the Laager Theatre, in the Market Theatre complex. Performances are from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 8.15pm and on Sundays at 3.15pm.
Tickets are available from Computicket on 011 340 800 or through the Computicket website.
Permission to use web site material
Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as:
- Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website
(www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency
(www.joburg.org.za)";
- If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original
article on this website;
- The name of the article's author is acknowledged;
-
The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill
in this brief online form).
Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 |
