{"id":708,"date":"2015-07-12T15:20:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T13:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=708"},"modified":"2025-11-25T07:28:56","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T07:28:56","slug":"dark-surreal-torture-or-ray-phiris-finest-hour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=708","title":{"rendered":"Dark, surreal torture &#8211; or Ray Phiri&#8217;s finest hour?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_710\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-710\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-710 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result (2)\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/RAPH_KJVR_10JULY2015_014_result-2-1568x2352.jpg 1568w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-710\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CUEPIX\/ Kate Janse van Rensburg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>RAY Phiri, 68, turned entertainment into performance art when he took to the stage of the National Arts Festival with two cracked ribs and a broken heart.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div>A crammed 800-seat Guy Butler Theatre audience of fans of the legendary mbaqanqa composer and performer went still when, after Phiri delivered a wobbly but sublime blues number through which he grabbed his side and missed some of the notes.<\/div>\n<div>Critter was in the front row, only metres away from Phiri, dressed in hip black with a cap, and saw tears streaming from his eyes.<\/div>\n<div>It was clear something was wrong, and soon after Phiri, who called for tissues to dry his eyes and mop his face, \u00a0left the stage, leaving his wide-eyed supporting band to cover with extended solos.<\/div>\n<div>But Phiri returned and told a shocked audience that four days before his sold-out festival anchor show, he had fallen and broken two ribs.<\/div>\n<div>His voice cracked as the then said he was also suffering the death of his wife two weeks ago.<\/div>\n<div>Festival organisers later said they were unsure if Phiri would make an appearance for his gig, but the maestro of mbaqanqa did not let his fans down.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;You can do it Ray!&#8221; some shouted as the crowd picked Phiri up and urged him to deliver one of the most poignant but edgy seen at the festival.<\/div>\n<div>Tea and a chair were brought for him, and at one point he leaned down on the stage while egging on his band members and keeled over onto the stage while hanging onto a speaker.<\/div>\n<div>Aides rushed to his help from the wing<\/div>\n<div>Phiri, who earlier spoke of being in agony and hinted that a picture of him performing at the show could be one of the last, thanked the audience for giving him strength and energy to get through.<\/div>\n<div>It was torture to watch especially from so close, and how do we acknowledge the dark feeling that somehow, this was one of the great performances?<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"ajT\" src=\"https:\/\/ssl.gstatic.com\/ui\/v1\/icons\/mail\/images\/cleardot.gif\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RAY Phiri, 68, turned entertainment into performance art when he took to the stage of the National Arts Festival with two cracked ribs and a broken heart.<\/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":[8,10],"tags":[570,679],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"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=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5332,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/5332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}