Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Worth staying awake for
Inthe
THE BAXTER started the new year with a sensational season of three plays performed in Afrikaans which have received raves and awards at festivals around the country.
Jaco Bouwer’s Samsa-masjien runs until January 31. Die Ongelooflike Reis van Max en Lola (The Incredible Journey of Max and Lola) with Vinette Ebrahim and Chris van Niekerk ends on February 7. The third play in the season is macbeth.slapeloos – an epic South African version of Macbeth created by Marthinus Basson.
He directs and designed the production. There are English surtitles for non-Afrikaans speakers. The superb cast of nine includes Dawid Minnaar, Anna- Mart van der Merwe, Jana Cilliers and Antoinette Kellermann.
For this production, Basson adapted Eitemal’s 1965 Afrikaans translation of Macbeth. Eitemal – the pseudonym of Willem Jacobus du Plooy Erlank – was an academic, poet, playwright, writer and professor of Dutch at Stellenbosch University from 1950 to 1966.
The play was commissioned by Clover Aardklop in celebration of Basson’s contribution to South African theatre.
Anna-Mart van der Merwe, who plays Lady Macbeth, says it is the third time that Basson has had the opportunity to do Macbeth. This commission has enabled him to approach the play from a different perspective: looking at the guilt and insomnia of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; their unbridled ambition and quest for power, and their shedding of any vestiges of morality.
Macbeth.slapeloos translates as “sleepless Macbeth” and sleep deprivation as a leitmotif is core to the play. “When we are sleep deprived, we are not thinking clearly,” says Mart van der Merwe. “It’s about how sleep deprivation affects us and puts us into a vicious cycle – waking and dreaming and being stuck in a nightmare situation. The violence and corruption in the world – that’s the wider picture and we are still there – with all the war, famine and corruption.
“In a way, Macbeth is on the brink: if he had decided not to go ahead with his murderous plans, things would have been different. Marthinus is interested in the choices that we make and has made the play relevant to our times.
“The production hints at modern times with its costumes and visuals. The visuals projected on a screen include footage of South Africa and both world wars.
“Marthinus creates space. He is working with a lot of screens and mirrors. There is a wonderful play of light and depth.”
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the ultimate power couple, says Van der Merwe: “Lady Macbeth is the trophy wife. Macbeth is a soldier and close to the king and his wife pushes him. Without him, she’s nothing, so she eggs him on, and look what happens when they achieve things which they are not equipped to deal with: the vanity and greed and the guilty conscious comes in and you can’t sleep.”
Although Basson has distilled nine characters from the Bard’s script, the dialogue hasn’t been changed.
● Macbeth.slapeloos is on from February 4- 21. Not suitable for under-14s. Tickets are R110-R140. Book at Computicket 0861 915 8000/www.computicket.com.