LIKE THE BEST MAN
THE Youngblood Gallery in Bree Street has become known as a space for multi-disciplinary collaboration with artists from an array of genres, rehearsing and presenting innovative work in The Youngblood Foundation’s building, called Beautifull Life.
The gallery – a streamlined Euro chic space – has also become a hipster venue for weddings. Now art/ theatre is imitating life with Strooijonker (Afrikaans for “best man”) – a dark comedy which will be staged in the gallery on August 30, 31 and September 1, at 8pm.
It is about Lukas (performed by De Klerk Oelofse) who is the best man at his best friend’s wedding. He makes a speech and it becomes a heady over-share of secrets. In this site-responsive piece of theatre, the audience become the “guests” – the voyeurs of drama as Lukas delivers his rant. Sparkling wine (a glass of complimentary bubbly provided to each “guest”) gets the vibe going. Direction is by Rob van Vuuren and Louw Venter. Design is by Rocco Pool.
Strooijonker is the Afrikaans translation of Venter’s hit comedy The Best Man’s Speech which was first staged – in English – at the 2007 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Van Vuuren directed. Louw subsequently adapted the script into the film Konfetti (released April 2014). Van Vuuren: “The Best Man’s Speech was a massive hit in Grahamstown and toured nationally. De Klerk saw the play as a high school student in Grahamstown. He was with his father who turned to him after the show and said: “that’s the kind of show you should do”. Cut to 2016 and Louw and De Klerk are performing together in Christiaan Olwagen’s production of Hond Se Gedagte. De Klerk mentioned that he loved The Best Man’s Speech and would love to do an Afrikaans version of the show. The rest, as they say, is history. Venter translated the script and as Strooijonker, it premiered at the KKNK in Oudtshoorn this year. The season at Youngblood, will be Strooijonker’s third run.
Van Vuuren enthused: “De Klerk Oelofse is the driving force behind all of this (the run of Strooijonker at Youngblood). He asked Youngblood if we could use the space as a rehearsal venue when we were putting the show together. Youngblood was very accommodating and it was kind of a natural progression that we would end up doing a performance in the gallery.” Oelofse added: “I’ve collaborated with Ina Wichterich (Youngblood’s in-house choreographer) on a couple of projects in the past and last year Youngblood asked me to participate in their promo video. They were kind enough to offer me their space to rehearse for this project and it just seemed like a great idea to actually use the space for a performance as well.”
Sponsors – Four Cousins and The Aleit Group – have come to the party. Four Cousins is providing bubbly for “guests”. Aleit – a major events company which arranges weddings – provided the initial financial support to create the piece. Van Vuuren: “The audience become inextricably drawn into the action as they make up the wedding guests and more importantly the bridal pair and their extended family. In that respect we have done away with the ‘fourth wall’ and the audience is totally immersed in the unfolding drama. Having said that, it is a show with a beginning, middle and an end.
“First and foremost it’s a comedy but like all great comedies, it’s infused with a sense of tragedy. What makes Lukas’s desperate attempt to keep his best man’s speech together is the very real emotional context that he is embedded in. There is a history between all these characters and Lukas as the best man is at the centre of that. His speech becomes the eye of the storm and it became a tightrope walk between love, despair, comedy, tragedy and everything in between.”
In many ways, weddings are grand theatre: the pomp, ceremony; tensions between the families; fights over who is paying for what and so on. It is inspired to stage Strooijonker as site-responsive theatre in a gallery which is used for weddings and as a space to stage alternative and decidedly non-mainstream work.
There won’t be wedding cake but before the show, light fare and snacks will be on sale – and the complimentary glass of bubbly will be doled out to each person.
Strooijonker is on August 30, 31 and September 1, 8pm. The Youngblood Gallery is 70-74 Bree Street. Tickets are R100 if pre-booked; call 021 424 0074 or e-mail info@youngblood-africa.com; R120 at door.
It is inspired to stage
as site-responsive theatre in a gallery which is used for weddings