Represent Review: Storm in a Teacup
Represent is so much richer for the wonderful flavour that our Representah Reuben “The Matrix” Malema’s words bring to our community. Reuben caught “Storm in a Teacup” , one of the performances featured in the showcase of Wits School of Arts “Masters’ and Honours’ students research projects… as usual, he gave it the “Full Matrix”. See some photo’s here:
A masterpiece of skillful art direction, well designed stage décor, a bag of laughs to last the whole week and flawless film-noir expertise! These are but a few of the phrases used to describe the grand finale of the little over 45 minutes – 3 member cast, music-filled theatrical satire: A Storm in a Teacup by Team Best Productions (Wits Theatre).
The setting is a fast-paced disastrous office ambience, made more apparent by the relentlessly authoritarian company boss – Mr. Bill Sampson (played by Bryan van Niekerk), who seems to be lost in a care-free; self-centered life rather than effectively steering the reigns of his family’s enterprise.
Storyline: The Christmas party co-ordinator, Zetie (played by Naomi van Niekerk) gets ditched by (already paid for) one “DJ Spear” at the eleventh hour. She also has to deal with a Father Christmas – Patrick (played by Asher Stoltz) who’s not too keen to be resident Santa clause, but would rather make known his secret affection for the worker-bee: Zetie.
The story is an all too familiar experience for many corporate employees who get engaged in the hustle and bustle of organizing the much anticipated annual company Christmas party. And from the immediate reciprocity of many an audience member, the play reeled–out a somewhat timely aha! moment which I dare call a majority affirmation of a very noticeable and much appreciated “dé jà vu”!
This play was nothing like any of the other plays that I’ve seen before and its director (Gordon Lindsay) strongly concurred with my statement by alerting me to the fact that Team Best (as they affectionately call themselves) went to elaborate lengths to push the boundaries and to a certain degree radically warp traditional theatre styles by “literally staging the play inside a collection of hand-held aluminum rectangle frames”. The unusual props not only produced a creative visual effect pointing to the “behind the scenes” brewing of “a storm in a teacup”, but also captivated the mesmerized audience’s attention, pulling their concentration to each “framed-in scene” while still having a full perspective of the entire set – nothing else, but a given!
Like any well narrated contemporary adult story; A Storm in a Teacup has many of the usual elements which characterize such theatrical acts, vis-à-vis: Jealousy amongst colleagues (for the only girl!), hidden passion, rush decisions made in an intoxicated state and unplanned sexual intercourse between the subordinate (Zetie) and her snide-prone superior (Mr. Bill Sampson) on company premises; all leading to a sustained, ultra-vibrant climax of well deserved laughs !
UPCLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH THE LEAD CREW MEMBERS
Why the use of vulgar in such an obviously well-done satire?
“ We wanted the play to resemble as much of the real South African environment as possible, as you might have noticed, not too much vulgarity was made use of – only what was necessary was factored in” (Gordon Lindsay – Play Director)
And what of the statement: “A lot of Blacks shop at Cresta…”. Were you not afraid of stirring-up perceived controversy among some sensitive black members of the audience?
“Not at all, we strongly believe that as South Africans, we need to step back and laugh at ourselves once in a while, we really do appear as uptight sometimes you know” (Gordon Lindsay – Play Director)
How did you come-up with the concept of making use of all these frames, a 3 member crew and the entire satirical theme which is really characteristic of this Film Noir: A Storm in a Teacup?”.
“The frames intended to project a form of Television or see through platform the audience, while keeping them focused on a specific scene. As for the 3 member crew – I just found it very easy to work with both Bryan & Naomi because we complement each other and really do form such a good team” (Asher Stoltz – Main Character and Play script writer).
How would you describe yourself as a theatrical actor now that you have managed to skip undertaking extensive university research towards your thesis by opting to do such a well choreographed play instead?
“I have to admit, I’m a creatively lazy bum (he laughs!), but at the end of the day – this is what I’m good at and together with the rest of the members of Team Best, a very harmonious synergy is struck and that is really more rewarding than going through a plethora of study material, however this does not entirely mean that my thesis research has been ditched, but rather the work has just been drastically minimized (Asher Stoltz – Main Character and Play script writer).
I thoroughly enjoyed this play (an all round, jolly good show!) and strongly do recommend its pending sequel or re-incarnation to all those with a good sense of humour and a seriously fortified fortitude (for the “regulated dosage” of vulgar and all those come from behind, racially astute – comic remarks! You have been fore-warned).
Reuben-the Matrix-Malema
