{"id":4269,"date":"2020-07-05T20:02:23","date_gmt":"2020-07-05T19:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4269"},"modified":"2020-07-05T21:38:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-05T20:38:15","slug":"garrys-retreat-truth-what-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4269","title":{"rendered":"Garry’s Retreat: Truth! What truth?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jessica Feldtman<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nappears to be a reflective,\nmelodramatic drama about the angst of childhood accidents and\ntragedies, Garry\u2019s\nRetreat<\/em>\nturns\nout to resemble\nsomething out of a Stephen King novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA\nshort play about a little boy, an astronaut and life\u201d led\nme to believe it was about the power of imagination to create\nalternative realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garry\u2019s\nRetreat – <\/em>Written\nby Saul Kemack and directed by Daniel Keith Geddes \u2013 is\nset in\nan ordinary kitchen where Garry, while making what seems to\nbe at least his\nthird cup of coffee, shares the story of a little boy. Despite having\nwritten and constantly reviewing the detailed pages of the tale,\nGarry\nattempts to share this story with us.\nThe boy\u2019s story, which may or may not be his own, contains\npeculiar thoughts of events involving\nblood and death and an ominous astronaut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\ndiscover\nhow this little boy was almost suffocated by an astronaut after his\nmother is locked out of the kitchen, how he developed his fear of\nwater and how he discovered a body while playing in the sand on a\nDurban beach. Can\na child\u2019s viewpoint warp one\u2019s own view of reality?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garry is brought to brilliant life by William Harding, who provides an exceptional performance of a seemingly psychologically disturbed man, easily diverted from the conversation at hand. It felt as if I was being singled out during the performance for \u201cgetting bored\u201d as Garry stared and pointed directly at me. But he is wrong, I was spellbound for the full 24 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe virtual\ncurtain\ndraws to a close, Garry\u2019s statement echoes in my mind: \u201cWe have\nso little control over how accidents happen, in the same way that we\nremember things.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if we are witness to events, is that enough to prove that our account is truthful?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garry’s Retreat is on the National Arts Festival vFringe programme. Find it here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DIRECTOR<\/strong>:
\nDaniel Keith Geddes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WRITTEN BY<\/strong>:
\nSaul Kemack<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PERFORMED BY<\/strong>:
\nWilliam Harding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MUSIC<\/strong>:
\nWessel Odendaal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EDITING<\/strong>:
\nJaco van Rensburg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

POSTER ART<\/strong>:
\nGrant Almirall<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RECORDED AT<\/strong>:
\nSplitbeam Virtual Studio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRODUCED BY<\/strong>:
\nVR Theatrical<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS<\/strong>:
\nWessel Odendaal
\nJaco van Rensburg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jessica Feldtman What appears to be a reflective, melodramatic drama about the angst of childhood accidents and tragedies, Garry\u2019s Retreat turns out to resemble something out of a Stephen … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,11],"tags":[1113,1114,1115,925],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269"}],"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\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4269"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4278,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4269\/revisions\/4278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}