Dazzling and unique theatrical experience

Nataniël time to change.

The costumes – inevitably with this artist – are sequinned, shimmering, kaleidoscopic, colourful, flowing, spectacular, beautiful creations of an imagination that has taken flight. The lighting, also Nataniël’s design, is carefully crafted, brilliant and at times startling, to match the mood.

As you would expect from the title, Mannequin, tailors and dressmakers feature extensively in his stories, but the theme is used to reverberate symbolically on many levels; mannequins as lifeless, perfectly formed stereotypes of people; marionettes controlled by society; headless tailor’s dummies without faces – used frequently in the staging – and even grinning jack-in-the boxes.

The musical numbers alternate with Nataniel’s stories, in both English and Afrikaans, so you really need to be comfortable with both. They are simply told, with considerable humour and telling effect. Again, symbolism runs deep.

He puts the spotlight on the ignored, the people unseen, those who are different and know they are different, those who want to vanish from the world, find out who and what they are – and be who and what they really are.

It is a surreal story in some ways, as he tells of a group of outcasts who create their own secret, but precarious world on the fringe of society. The Afrikaans stories link in while taking us to the small towns and further eccentric characters cramped by expectations.

Nataniël speaks frankly and eloquently about the exhaustion and pain of being different, and his long walk to freedom… “No, there’s no easy walk when you’re somebody like me, when you’re really, really beautiful and no one’s allowed to see”.

Ultimately, he and his team tell us we are “the leaders of our lives ... that we need to acknowledge and rejoice in who we are and what we have inside” ... “celebrate the soul that is riding the storm, straight up like mannequin in perfect form”.

Thank you, Nataniël, for sharing some of your beauty.

Script, lyrics, original music, concept, staging and lighting design is by Nataniël. His band is Nicolaas Swart and Dihan Slabbert on vocals, Charl du Plessis on keyboards, Juan Oosthuizen on guitars, Werner Spies on bass and Hugo Radyn on drums.