Once Upon a Teacup: Magical serving of artistry

To say that a show, the form of which in its theatrical style, is “magical; a gem; enchanting …” is a cliché that has become almost meaningless through overuse. But, there it is.

Watching Once Upon a Teacup was reminiscent of work from the early 2000s at the National Arts Festival in then Grahamstown of Fresco Theatre (James Cunningham and Helen Iskander, with Sylvaine Strike, now of Fortune Cookie) who used image theatre, including puppetry, to create transformative staged moments.

The creator and actor Jessica Haines resonates with authenticity and intimacy. Besides being superb at her craft of acting: strong in the playing of characterisation; physically adept at expressive movement; using controlled chosen movement motifs, gesture, and voicing with strong ability; a nuanced interpretation; and crafted, modulated expression of the spoken word (the worded script is all written in rhyming couplets, but the delivery thereof is so intelligent, sensitive and varied in modulation of speech and not caught in any predictable rhyme that it takes a while to even notice this).

These acting demands are coupled with the performance demands of technically manipulating the elements that create object theatre and puppetry – the objects themselves and the sources of light – which the actress does herself (besides the stage lighting). So, besides acting, she is manipulating the devices that underscore and facilitate the imagistic nature of the storytelling.

Sheets of cloth are used metaphorically throughout, and as the literal screen for the projection of the shadow puppetry. For example, at one moment, in the narrative, she tears off a strip of fabric from one of the sheets she has been using to create both costume and movement play, and turns it into a boarding school tie, a symbol of the pressure of conformity and constriction of personal expression in the interests of strangling the poetic and imaginative voice of a young child.

To describe the show as ‘shadow theatre’ – which it essentially is (Haines studied shadow theatre at the Theatre_der Schantten in Bamberg, Germany and Cunningham, as mentioned, brings an intrinsic, experiential understanding of this form) – limits the work, denying the many other theatrical elements that are this show’s components. Essentially, the mastery of the form by the actress who, despite and because of her technical mastery, was just so sweet and humble.

The show uses multiple theatrical modes of presentation to communicate. In all, it is a folkloric (there is a characteristically evil archetype), very personal, very emotionally moving, very intimately told (perfection includes anorexia and bulimia nervosa), play about identity formation, location in place (from Africa, to New York, and back to Africa) and, at the end, mothering and the protection of the self. The self who was once child, needing to be nurtured as child in the becoming of an adult now who, in the tale, is the mother who needs to be protected from the forces of pink, blonde, “successful perfection”.

It isn’t a bald morality tale, but the personal story, so artistically poignantly and theatrically rendered it leaves one weeping.

Jessica Haines stars in this self-penned and devised piece, directed by James Cunningham.

Once Upon a Teacup is at the Hilton Arts Festival until 10 August.