Big Bad Wolf loses its bite in innovative reimagining of Prokofiev’s classic
Wolves get a bum rap in age-old stories that originated in Europe and have become global archetypes. Thanks to Aesop and the Brothers Grimm, the Big Bad Wolf looms large in the catalogue of scary creatures that children learn to distrust from a young age.
While the dog — basically a domesticated wolf species — enjoys all the kudos of “man’s best friend”, the wild wolf connotes bloodshed and danger.
When anthropomorphised, dogs become symbols of loyalty and affection; wolves, by contrast, stand for cunning, deceit and even insanity.
This derision and fear is not universal. In Japanese and Mongolian folklore, as well as among the native peoples of North America, the wolf is a revered animal, associated with good luck and healing.
However, that hasn’t helped the wolf population. Around the world, various wolf species face endangered status. I learned recently that one of the apartheid government’s more bizarre schemes was importing dozens of Russian grey wolves for cross-breeding with Alsatians, aiming to create deadly supercanines.
Barend Strydom, who shot dead seven black people, was the “Wit Wolf”. Apart from such oddities, however, SA has no indigenous wolves — the closest here are jackals, hyenas or perhaps wild dogs — and so we tend to reproduce those stale Western tropes.
This produces some curious results. Over a century ago, James A Honey published South
African Folk-Tales, and the book had a few stories featuring Jackal and Wolf. South Africans today still refer to Jackal and Wolf stories, although it is unclear whether or not these predate Honey’s collection.
In 2012, Olwethu Sipuka wrote an opinion article about Jacob Zuma’s presidency, recalling a story about Jackal and Wolf he heard growing up in Mdantsane in the 1980s. This is part of a small but significant subgenre — using wolf imagery to describe state capture.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane called former national director of public prosecutions Shaun Abrahams “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. Former Business Day editor Songezo Zibi has referred to the “wolves” in the ANC, who pushed us to the brink of institutional collapse.
Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan, Thuli Madonsela and other brave souls were repeatedly described as “keeping the wolf from the door”. Madonsela was, in this sense, truly a protector of the public.
Watching Shameela Seedat’s documentary about Madonsela’s final year in that office, Whispering Truth to Power, at the opening screening of the 2018 Jozi Film Festival — which continues until Sunday — one cannot fail to give thanks for that vital shepherding role.
The proceedings of the Zondo commission of inquiry are a daily reminder that the wolves are still among us.
This metaphoric threat notwithstanding, one may fairly ask: why should South Africans be afraid of wolves? The question has twin implications: one is decolonial, the other is ecological. And these considerations are the driving force behind a reinterpretation of Peter and the Wolf in a new production by VR Theatrical at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino Theatre until October 21.
The basics of Sergei Prokofiev’s classic work are still there. Each character has a musical motif that allows the narrator to introduce a different instrument in the orchestra.
Peter, his grandfather, the bird, duck and cat are more or less unchanged. However, the wolf, it transpires, is not a threat to anyone’s safety. And the hunters are reformulated into the “Hunter twins” — bullies on the outside, misunderstood and vulnerable kids on the inside.
Elizma Badenhorst’s adaptation of the text and Wessel Odendaal’s arrangement of the score are complemented by a range of other creative digressions of Prokofiev’s story. Instead of expensive and slightly intimidating instruments from the orchestra pit, there are models crafted from recycled materials that can be “played” with a bit of imagination.
And instead of a sonorous narrator, there is a voice-over that interacts comically with a mimed staging of the story.
Through puppetry and physical theatre, Justin Swartz, Angela Sparks and Naret Loots make the characters vivid to a young audience. Christelle van Graan and Lien van der Linde’s puppets, and Francois van der Hoven’s scenic design, deserve special mention.
Take your kids — wolves aren’t that frightening.