Out of Africa, but not without complications
SNAG MEANS local actress has role in Waiting for the Barbarians
Members of the South African cast of the Segal Centre’s next play, Waiting for the Barbarians, based on the novel by J.M. Coetzee, arrived in Montreal this week. All but one, that is. The show’s producer, former Centaur Theatre artistic director Maurice Podbrey, and its director Alexandre Marine, are not pleased with this turn of events.
Why was actor Chiedza Kudzai Mhende not allowed into the country?
“Well, she happened to be born in Zimbabwe and that turned out to be a problem for the Canadian Immigration,” Podbrey explained, during a joint interview along with Marine at the Segal Centre early this week.
Why should Zimbabwe be problematic?
“It’s just a shame for Canadian Immigration,” interjected Marine, “There is no reason.”
“No, they haven’t given any reason,” Podbrey continued. “It’s something to do with the fact that she is from Zimbabwe. And they’re very suspicious of anyone from Zimbabwe. They suspect they will come and demand to live here, to stay here.”
Why weren’t they equally suspicious of the South African-born actors?
“Because countries are rated according to what their suspicion is,” he replied. “And they’re apparently very suspicious of Zimbabwe at the moment. But the logic behind it is impossible. This happened three days before she was due to leave, before she was to get on the plane. It was a little bit of a drama, indeed.”
With theatre people, however, dramas usually find a resolution.
“Happily, we have replaced her here with a most perfect actress,” Podbrey said. “And we’ve cemented the South African/Quebec alliance by bringing in a local person.”
Kimberly-Anne Laferriere will be taking over the role of Zoe, that was played by Mhende during the show’s inaugural two-and-halfweek run at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town.
Marine had two days to work with Laferriere here before the remaining seven members of the cast arrived from Cape Town on Wednesday, allowing for less than two weeks of rehearsal before previews begin, on Jan. 27. This does seem rushed, but not to Podbrey.
“I grew up in weekly rep (repertory theatre). That’s easy stuff.”
It was Marine who initiated the Coetzee project.
“Sasha told me that he was interested in the novel,” Podbrey said, “and that he’d done an adaptation of it, in Russian, first of all, thinking it might go there first. He was in consultation with someone there. However, they decided to delay that production, as it was politically sensitive. They take their theatre seriously still in Russia. Unlike us. So I said let’s move it (the adaptation) to South Africa where Coetzee originates.”
This however, necessitated further adaptation of the script, into English. Marine delegated this task to his son, Dmitri Marine, who has also composed the music the show.
Father and son travelled to South Africa together to prepare the production. It was Marine’s first visit.
“And I fell in love with the country,” he said.
Some of the text in the play comes directly from the novel, Marine said. “But there are some scenes which we invented for this show, otherwise we could not have a dramatic play.”
Why was he so interested in Waiting for the Barbarians?
“I think it’s the most important book of the 20th century,” Marine replied. “And it’s pertinent to things that are happening to our society right now.”
Coetzee, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, and two Booker Prizes, is now a citizen of Australia.
His Waiting for the Barbarians, written in 1980, is set in a frontier town of an unnamed empire. It examines the moral quandaries of a local magistrate who has a troubling relationship with a “barbarian” girl and eventually becomes a victim of the ruling powers.
In the theatrical adaptation, Grant Swanby plays the magistrate, and Chuma Sopotela plays the girl.
Waiting for the Barbarians is coproduced by Podbrey’s South Africa-based Mopo Cultural Trust and the Segal Centre.
On the South African side, the show is partly funded by a lottery grant, which Mopo had received to cover four projects, of which this is the fourth.
“I was very fortunate in getting quite a large grant after quite a bureaucratic wrangle,” Podbrey said. “And so most of the cost was covered by that. And we produced it in conjunction with the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, which has been a partner for many of my shows in the past. They are our coproducers. So it all worked out very neatly.”
Podbrey, who has been based in South Africa for the past 14 years, is no novice at importing South African theatre to Montreal. During his tenure at Centaur (1969-1997), he brought in two works, Asinimali and Take the Floor. Plus he introduced the anti-apartheid plays of Athol Fugard to North America.
More recently, his Mopo company brought Tshepang, by South African playwright Lara Foot Newton, to Montreal and Toronto. He has hopes to tour Waiting for the Barbarians as well. But at the moment, the Segal Centre is its only North American booking. On Jan. 27 at 11 a.m., Podbrey will be joining McGill associate professor Monica Popescu, an expert on post-colonial literature, for a Sunday-at-the-Segal talk, with refreshments served. They’ll also be doing a more in-depth version of same at McGill on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. Admission is free for both events.
Waiting for the Barbarians, from the novel by J.M. Coetzee, adapted and directed by Alexandre Marine, runs Jan. 27 to Feb. 17 at the Segal Centre, 5170 Côte St. Catherine Rd. Call 514-739-7944 or visit www.segalcentre.org