Township stories: Relativity is on at the Market Theatre

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Relativity is not for the faint-hearted With its graphic - and often brutal - depiction of township life, Relativity is difficult to sit through. However, it offers insight into what makes people do the things they do, and is worth watching. March 29, 2006 By Ndaba Dlamini TALENTED stage writer and director Paul Grootboom, who brought us Cards, is back at the Market Theatre's main stage with Relativity, a sizzling drama that explores township life. Co-written by Presley Chweneyagae, who took the lead in the Oscar-winning Tsotsi, the play is graphic and almost cruel in its portrayal of the lives of township people. It tells the story of a serial killer, known as the G-String Strangler, who spends his nights stalking young girls. Ironically, the elusive G-String Strangler is a product of the very society that he comes to terrorise. He is also the son of an abusive police sergeant who is hot on the trail of the killer. Intricately woven into the story are the tragi-comic lives of a host of different characters, each one adding a particular colour to the play. There is the young schoolgirl who runs away from home and tries to find solace in the arms of a township tsotsi, an unscrupulous shebeen queen who shares a boyfriend with her daughter, and a father who witnesses his family disintegrate and tries to drown his sorrows in beer. The humour is, in places, cruel. A recipient of the 2005 National Standard Bank Young Artist Award for theatre, Grootboom says he loves the play so much for its directing possibilities. It is a "goldmine of directing treasure/substance, especially for a neophyte director like me". "The danger about my love for this play is only in that I may get too self-indulgent with the material … But it is unashamedly self-indulgent, much like Eight-and-a-Half and Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia," Grootboom says. "I do not claim that our work is anywhere near as good as those movies, but I do hope that the love I have for this play rubs off on whoever watches it." Grootboom has written numerous scripts for stage and television. These include Young Vision for SABC TV2 in 1994, Suburban Bliss for SABC TV1 in 1995, SABC3 soapie Isidingo and Soul City for the SABC in 2000. For theatre, he wrote Enigma in 1997, Not With My Gun with Aubrey Sekhabi in 1998 and Messiah, among others. There are explicit sex scenes, violence and strong language in Relativity, and parental guidance is strongly advised. It is on at the Market Theatre until 14 May. For more information, contact the Market Theatre publicity department on 011 832 1641. 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 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za