{"id":1926,"date":"2014-07-05T11:00:56","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:42:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:42:17","slug":"oedipus-koo-nu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=1926","title":{"rendered":"Oedipus @ Ko\u00f6-N\u00fa!: two for the price of one"},"content":{"rendered":"
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David Dennis and Masasa Mbangeni as Oedipus and Antigone in Oedipus @ Ko\u00f6-N\u00fa! Photo: CuePix\/Joshua Oates<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greek tragedy for an East London oke can feel daunting, so it brings relief when the playwright-director tells you at the end of his show to take what you want.<\/p>\n

But this is the 40th National Arts Festival where strange and marvellous things happen; the post-performance audience discussion with Standard Bank young artist award winner for theatre, Greg Homann, was one of those magical two-for-the-price-of-one festival moments.<\/p>\n

He was speaking after the world premiere of his Oedipus @ Ko\u00f6-N\u00fa!<\/em> at Rhodes Theatre on the Main on Thursday.<\/p>\n

There’s nothing wrong with observing a rich, complex piece and to come away feeling moved but uncertain about whether your understanding or point of access was “right”. But it feels good when the playwright-director himself tells you you were on the money with some of the key themes.<\/p>\n

And to hear the concerns and issues emoting straight from the mind of the creator of the work is a moment of wholesome democracy; we the audience share his anxiety, his relief and his happiness right to the end and beyond. We are with him, he is with us, and that’s smart and generous theatre.<\/p>\n

Yes, there’s a lot of Greek family kinship stuff to get your head around, especially when wretched Oedipus has unwittingly killed his father and successfully progenated four times with his ma, but Homann has again been gentle in getting his characters to repeat these ties chorus-like in for those of us who did not study drama, but know what we like…<\/p>\n

In a South African sense, he opens the gate to allow us to go where he really wants to take us, and that is down the track to the heart of South Africa and Africa, and if you come away knowing a bit about ancient Greek tragedy, well that’s a valuable extra.<\/p>\n

It pleased me greatly, that the last lines delivered by the tragic hero, Oedipus, performed with neon brilliance by David Dennis, was that given that lilting Madiba accent, and telling more would give it away. But it was subtle and potent, coming as it did after an hour or so of rollicking, see-sawing humour and violence.<\/p>\n

Expect some sharp SA characterisations of State, politics and culture, and hilarious give-away lines which would be self-deprecatory in my mind but, according to my theatre-trained family, were moments of sublime \u201cpost-modernism\u201d.<\/p>\n

So, to cut to the quick; the play lives in the ether between an arcane, yet relevant 2400-year-old original Greek story and method, and us. So much of us is present, as petty despots, misguided siblings, haunted parents, and us as theatre makers with rip-offs physical theatre and yes, even a tease of Brett Bailey’s dark African operas. The parody of the 1995 Rugby World Cup theme song is, to coin a clich\u00e9, a challenge to our apparently bullet-proof sense of humour. It’s a go big and laugh, or go home instant.<\/p>\n

I am not sure if this is easy theatre or the stuff where you have to keep your bottom bolted to the chair and work your noggin. Perhaps a bit both and everything in between.<\/p>\n

Is it good theatre? Actually, it’s great South African theatre. But the only time you will be singing along is during that laughing-crying rugby anthem. But please, don’t keep the cork in when it feels funny, it is funny, a different kind of funny, but that is its power, a new hilarity. Look out for Tumi Morake’s Theseus, she is a scream.<\/p>\n

And don’t hold back on feeling gutted by the monologues: there is deep criticism going on here, and despite some sops to a benign State, but the final lines spoken by two chained comics, one black, one white are delivered to a nation frozen in uncertainty.<\/p>\n

It’s all up to you to do something, like seeing this piece.<\/p>\n

— Mike Loewe<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greek tragedy for an East London oke can feel daunting, so it brings relief when the playwright-director tells you at the end of his show to take what you want. … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[301,304,577,619,729,875],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5335,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/5335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}