Schlenter & Chaff: Jozi underworld gets theatremaxxed
An explosion of fists and kicks and arses out, this duo of Jozi skelms rip off the city’s criminal underbelly by being doff and having cash.
Schlenter & Chaff, a satirical comedy of masc proportions, hits the stage with booming cliché music and flexed muscles. Performers Themba Dlamini (in an awfully ratchet blonde wig) and Oliver-Ché Naidu push into levels of theatremaxxing, every ounce of sweat and spit thrown into the comedy ring.
Directed by Martin Grendele, it’s a clowning/physical style reminiscent of Roberto Pombo or Daniel Buckland, but more douchey, less whimsical.
Brad Schlenter and Brian Chaff are dodgy “lawyers” from the South, the duds in their crime family who need to punch their way back up the justice ladder and into their Daddies’ good graces.
Their scheme? By turning their last case — an innocent man the mob is trying to make their diamond heist scapegoat — into a perceived Big Dog criminal, using all their sneaky tricks…
They go through all the plays in the con book. Impressively, they have a bit that uses alliteration through the entire alphabet.
It’s funny! Some great wordplay and names like Julius Dilema and Scott Free, and the pair have some lekker talent.
This is not a “sponsored by a major food chain who-done-it” commercial catastrophe; it would do great on the Fringe programmes across SA.
Brought by Vigilante Theatre, formed by Grendele, Naidu and Dlamini, who all met at the Wits School of the Arts according to the show’s bio, the production is inspired by their upbringing in Jozi and surrounds, with a focus on the gang violence and politics of the East Rand and the south in the 2000s.
Grendele gives us a sort of disclaimer in the beginning: what we are about to watch is neither true nor untrue, which in retrospect was a bit confusing, but also obvious considering it’s very much satire.
They have called this “a true collaborative passion project showcasing the kind of theatre they want to see more of in this country”. I agree, there has been some major effort and energy put into the craft of performance.
The characters are douchebags, we get that from their first pelvic thrust, and throughout the whole show we hear anecdotes of their seedy nature — so by the fourth pelvic thrust, it takes it from joke gross to actual gross.
It’s a new show, debuting at POPArt Theatre in June last year, so still has that excited smoosh of trying every single idea. When you keep too much in, the quality jokes can get lost. The audience needs those moments of exhale, otherwise it can start to feel a bit cheesy.
If the director is going to quip from the lighting box as a fourth wall breaker, he needs to follow the actor’s lead and speak up; they are PUMPING out there. An external narrator needs to take their place as part of the production, not a sideline.
But the show has legs. Character comedy is a hit in SA. Think Suzelle DIY, Coconut Kelz, Boet & Swaer: Schlenter & Chaff might be the new faces of a Chicken Licken advert or Netflix special, they could run this thing for years; take on new cases, solve murders, go undercover for SAPS in a ballroom competition, MC the Naledi Awards, who knows.
The world is burning around us, mense, so go have some laughs for an hour. Yes, our justice system is broken, and you can bribe your way out of a traffic fine with a buddy Coke, but there are still three guys who came all the way from Jozi to perform their hearts out to six of us in the audience.
Overall, the show is fab and fleeting at Theatre Arts. The three day run ended today. But keep an eye out, these guys are not the type to disappear into the woodwork.