Moving solo performance about getting over heartbreak
Young boy works through father's absence while mending things King of Broken Things
GENRE: Theatre FORMAT: Video DURATION: 50mins AGES: 10+ LANGUAGE: English AVAILABLE FROM: June 29
To stumble across The King of Broken Things at the Virtual National Arts Festival’s Fringe programme is to find a hidden gem.
The theatre piece, written and directed by playwright and founder of Theatresmiths — a collective of theatre makers — Michael Taylor-Broderick, tells the story of a young boy and his love for broken and discarded things and his knack for finding ways to fix them.
The King of Broken Things is Broderick’s most recent work, premiering at the Hilton Arts Festival in 2018. In 2019 the production graced the Guild Theatre stage in East London as part of the Umtiza Arts Festival.
The 50-minute piece is performed by Johannesburg-born actress Cara Roberts and is her first solo performance.
The King of Broken Things follows a young boy as he mends and reinvents his collection of broken things.
Through the young boy’s experimental “fixing” projects and inventions, from turning a fractured flask into an iridescent vase to the creation of a “word protector“, the audience come to learn of the boy’s heartbreak and abandonment.
The piece starts off as lighthearted but in between the boy’s tinkering, short attention span and childish gestures, his words become profound as he reminisces on happy pastimes with his now absent father while working on his projects.
Using beautiful metaphors, the heartfelt and intelligent script touches on myths, dreams and ancient Japanese traditions such as the art of kintsugi, whereby broken pottery pieces are mended back together using gold.
Convincing audiences with the awkwardness and mannerisms of a young boy, Roberts excels in her portrayal of the character struggling with the absence of his father, the tormenting words of his peers at school and his mother’s broken heart.
Roberts delivers a poignant monologue with the naivety and sincerity of a child, challenging the audience to face their own flaws.
To watch these and other shows at the virtual National Arts Festival, from June 25 to July 5, visit http://www.nationalarts festival.co.za
But the light in Roberts eyes and the resilient childlike optimism she portrays is what compels the audience to ’keep watching, to keep listening and to keep believing.
It is not a tearjerker in the traditional sense: there are no deaths of loved ones or explicit scenes of a child being bullied. Still one can shed a tear or two at the reminder of our own brokenness, our humanness.
The King of Broken Things teaches us about the weight that words like “worry” and “carefree” carry within us, and about the heaviness of negative energy. It teaches us that people are like broken things that often need other broken things to survive.
It teaches us that broken things can be fixed, and can work just as well once fixed. It teaches us that sometimes we do the breaking, when our actions and words hurt others and, finally, it urges us to believe in ourselves and our dreams again.
If, like me, you were careless enough to miss King of Broken Things the first time it was available nearby, don’t make the same mistake twice. And if you have already seen it, a reminder of “the magic we easily forget in everywhere”, especially the magic in you, can do no harm.