{"id":1337,"date":"2016-07-03T15:41:10","date_gmt":"2016-07-03T13:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1337"},"modified":"2016-07-03T15:41:10","modified_gmt":"2016-07-03T13:41:10","slug":"blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1337","title":{"rendered":"Blue: Poor Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stella<\/a>
Stella Dlangalala and Tyson Ngubeni perform in Blue. Photo credit: Cuepix\/ Madeleine Chaput.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the chance that you don\u2019t know\u2026 poor theatre is a thing (that makes for a tricksy headline). Jerzy Grotowski was a director and drama theorist who purported that theatre needn\u2019t be a spectacle; the simpler, the better. The more honest and stripped of unnecessary features the characters and stage is, the more honest will be the connection to the audience.<\/p>\n

A few (empty) beer crates, a scarf, a pair of trousers, and some awesomely jiving tunes is all it took to pull us into the state of South Africa. Oh ja, there were two wildly talented actors too.<\/p>\n

Simona Mazza directs Tyson Ngubeni and Stella Dlangalala in Blue<\/em>, a rather amusing look at the blue light brigade, greed\u00a0and\u00a0corruption, through the eyes of our country\u2019s diverse people. Dlangalala and Ngubeni flit deftly between portraying retired policemen, an Uber driver, government officials, a windscreen washer, intersection vendor (and more), and brother and sister Bekhisizwe and Nomandla.<\/p>\n

As the truth of these siblings\u2019 story emerges we\u2019re exposed to some harsh truths about SA politics. Set eight years in the future, the people look back on 2016, but try their best to circumvent telling the truth. Blue<\/em> is staged with the technique of an invisible documentary crew interviewing the characters, tracking down the truth through each interview. It works really well to build intrigue and brings immediacy to connecting with the audience.<\/p>\n

The blue light brigade is notoriously seen as being above the law. The ministers they transport and protect too. Mazza and team take them on and call them out. One character, Amirah Maharaj, a PA to a MP reassures the interviewers (and us) that \u201cgovernment takes care of people\u201d. We\u2019re heard that line so many times from parliament \u2013 when will it become true? She adds that she has to do her part to \u201cmake parliament\u201d. Mutual back-scratching and nepotism is the name of the politics game.<\/p>\n

The clever script jibes at our corrupt officials, those whose jobs are to protect and serve us. Particularly funny was one character\u2019s comment on censorship: \u201cthe forecast is Hlaudi, with a chance of meatballs\u201d. It\u2019s funny and all too tragic at the same time, given the escalating controversies around the public broadcaster in Hlaudi Motsoeneng\u2019s controlling grip. As Blue<\/em>\u2019s MP character says, \u201cwe can\u2019t be seen in a bad light\u201d. Well, propaganda can help with that.<\/p>\n

This is all highly relevant at the National Arts Festival. Censorship doesn\u2019t stop at gag orders in the newsroom. It filters through to all art (remember the Spear<\/em> incident?) and if we remain complacent, one day the NAF programme will be filled with JZ tribute works.<\/p>\n

Besides a small issue I had with rhythm \u2013 it felt a little flat at times \u2013 I think Blue<\/em> is a great piece of significant theatre, well performed, well written, well directed and well thought out.<\/p>\n

– Sarah Roberson<\/strong><\/p>\n

Blue is on tonight (03 July) at 19.30 at the Rehearsal Room. For bookings and more info click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the chance that you don\u2019t know\u2026 poor theatre is a thing (that makes for a tricksy headline). Jerzy Grotowski was a director and drama theorist who purported that theatre … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[59,132,577,753,780,876],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}