{"id":4248,"date":"2020-07-04T15:45:17","date_gmt":"2020-07-04T14:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4248"},"modified":"2020-07-04T22:59:56","modified_gmt":"2020-07-04T21:59:56","slug":"the-king-of-broken-things-picking-up-the-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4248","title":{"rendered":"The King of Broken Things: Picking up the pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> <strong>By Laura du Toit<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are invited into the intimate workings of a little boy\u2019s imagination in Michael Taylor-Broderick\u2019s ode to the people and things society deems damaged.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>The King of\nBroken Things<\/em> asks\nto reflect on our own brokenness. We are reassured by a boy\nwho, although broken himself, believes anything can be fixed. Then,\nwe are urged to take pride in our cracks and to delight in our\nfaults. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sets seems to be a mess. A jumble of cardboard boxes, tin cans and hopscotch outlines in chalk aren\u2019t your usual source of inspiration, but for the main character (played by Cara Roberts) it is a refuge from bullies and a workshop for wonder. Roberts\u2019 little boy teaches us the remarkable potential of broken things. By the end of the performance, we are familiar with the workings of emotion calculators, upside-down bird cages and magic caps.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roberts gives a\nstellar performance as a boy whose absent father leaves him with big\ndreams and a broken heart. She tenderly encapsulates the blind faith\nand anguished confusion of a fatherless child. The boy and his father\nwere the original kings of broken things, before his father left and\nhis mother retreated to the kitchen with her tears. Hands shyly\ntwisted together, the boy searches for our approval as he presents us\nwith his treasured inventions. Parental instincts take over; we feel\nwe ought to comfort this child, to wonder at his creations in place\nof his father. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The boy whispers into his father\u2019s cap, \u201cimagine, dream, believe\u201d before placing it on his head. Taylor-Broderick has placed the same magic cap on us; we are inspired by the convictions of a boy who was taught by his absent father to imagine, dream and believe. The child\u2019s favourite kind of broken is when it needs other broken things to survive \u2013 is that not the heart of humanity?  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Watch <\/em>The King of Broken Things <em>on the National Arts Festival vFringe programme <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"here (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalartsfestival.co.za\/show\/the-king-of-broken-things\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/em> <em>Tickets cost R50.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Concept<\/strong>: Michael Taylor-Broderick<br><strong>Written and Directed<\/strong>: Michael Taylor-Broderick<br><strong>Performed<\/strong>: Cara Roberts\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Laura du Toit We are invited into the intimate workings of a little boy\u2019s imagination in Michael Taylor-Broderick\u2019s ode to the people and things society deems damaged. The King &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4248\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[1106,1105],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4248"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4259,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4248\/revisions\/4259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}