Monday 21st March 2011

Today I was invited to lunch with the director, Dion Van Niekerk. As it was a public holiday (Human Rights Day, soon, hopefully to become a world-wide Anti-Racism Day) many places were closed, so Dion  generously offered to make lunch for me. I took a couple of mini bottles of wine courtesy of Qantas, and we drank and ate and spent a number of hours chatting enthusiastically, getting to know each other and sharing our ideas for Romeo and Juliet. We discussed casting ideas, design concepts, rehearsal hours, rehearsal modes, approaches to vocalising and physicalising the text, and practical issues such as the logistics of touring the show to the various school festivals.

I learnt that I will be traveling across the country with the cast which is very exciting news - from KwaZulu-Natal (where Durban is) to the North West Schools festival, Mafikeng. I am quite thrilled that I will get to see more of South Africa through the very-legit excuse of being on the job! Dion addressed the impact that touring has on our design limitations, but after seeing 'Door', I'm confident our designer Barati, is up for the challenge. Dion also has a background in design.

One of the less welcome pieces of information is that our show is only to be 1 hour in length. I thought we had an hour and a half! I can already feel the trauma of cutting more of Shakespeare's beautiful words.

It was particularly interesting to me to learn that not one of the 6 actors in the company is an English as first language speaker. The mother tongue of the actors is predominantly Xhosa, with one Zulu and one Afrikaans speaker in the mix. Dion informed me that the differing vowel sounds in the African languages actually means that some English sounds are not in the daily repertoire of these performers. In talking of the first folio and long spellings revealing elongated pronunciation of words, Dion responded: "How do you get an actor to extend a vowel sound when he has never made that sound before in his life?" Good question. But more-so than concern, I think bi-lingual actors are an asset to a production which aims to reach a wide cultural spectrum, and this is one of the main reasons I am here to investigate Shakespeare in community theatre. The impact on the actors' exploration of Shakespeare's language, and how we exploit this multi-lingual talent base are all things to unearth over the coming weeks. I sent an email to Dion a few weeks back, explaining how a multi-lingual Shakespeare production was one of the motivators for my Churchill fellowship application. The following is what I emailed him:

In 2007 in Stratford Upon Avon, I saw the RSC's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Tim Supple and performed by Indian and Sri Lankan actors and physical theatre artists. The text was played in 7 different Indian languages amongst the dominant English. I was unable to understand the foreign languages, however followed the story easily through the highly physical storytelling and expression. I saw the show with a group of 5 other people I had met in the ticket line, a couple of whom were completely unfamiliar with the play or story. They also followed the plot and characters with ease. The show was utterly alive, playful, cheeky, rollicking, silly, sexy, and dangerous all at once. It was the only play I have ever witnessed a leaping standing ovation for  - at the show's conclusion, the ENTIRE audience leapt to their feet in unison to applaud the show. It was this energy, the physicality and playfulness of that production, that inspired me to explore a more physical and culturally expansive approach to Shakespeare, hence working with Ubom!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2007/mar/15/reviewsroundupamidsummerni

On a different note... a moral issue was raised for me today: I have a sneaking suspicion that despite being informed by Janet and myself of my veganism, Dion served me a lunch with animal ingredients. (I know that to vegan new-comers, the mistakes are easily made, so this is forgivable and in no-way a judgement on Dion!) After his elaborate preparation, I didn't have the heart to question the make up of the chick-pea pancakes. I ate one, out of a politeness and manners which Jonathan Saffron Foer describes as the "fellowship of the table" - our community spirit and love of sharing food and conversation with friends and family as a daily ritual, integral to our humanity. The dining table is a place where we share stories. A hub of communication. In kitchens around the world this fellowship of the table is 'justification' for unconscious compliance with the vastly unethical and inhumane practice of factory farming (no one can successfully rebut the last 8 words, they are FACT, only to be acknowledged or ignored as you wish).... But enough of my rant, though it is my blog, so there.
But how do I shift my mind set to make my values as important as my relationships and to turn the  conversation to one of connection rather than compliance... without seeming rude or ungrateful? I'm going to be strong in resolve for future such encounters. I hope it's the last time I compromise my fundamental beliefs for ingrained manners.*

I don't want to lose my vegan super(iority)-powers :)

* I'm not ruling out the hopeful possibility that the pancakes were made with soy milk and egg-replacer!