Defending the South African

JCS for Easter

I have always loved going to the theater and being lucky enough to have lived for 50+ years under the lights of the Great White Way in NYC, I went a lot! As an adult, I'd say an average of once a month. Every birthday, holiday and anniversary always included a night at the theater as part of the festivities. (I saw Jesus Christ Superstar twice on Broadway. Once in high school - we studied the libretto in religion class! And once for Easter in 2012.)

As often as not, I would go to see the original cast early in their opening season. (And if there was an understudy performing that night, I would promptly turn my tickets in to exchange them for another night's performance when the star was in the house. No charge.)  I am a total unadulterated, unapologetic, full-on, remorseless theater snob. You gotta problem with that?

Going to the theater had been one of my parents' favorite forms of entertainment too and they took me to my first Off-Broadway show. "Try to remember the kind of September..." And following their example, I most likely turned our sons into theater snobs at a very early age when we took them to see their first real professional musical - Jonathon Pryce as Fagin in a West End production of Oliver in London. More please! Sean Connery and Ann-Margaret (not together) were even in the audience.

(I am a ballet snob and an Italian food snob too. That is what happens when you grow up with the best! Non est mea culpa!)

@ The Abbey Theatre in Dublin

My theater snobbery even transferred across the pond. Whenever I was in London, I would spend an inordinate amount of time in the West End and at Shakespeare's Globe indulging my London theater fix. Ditto for Irish theater in Dublin.

Since moving to South Africa though, I have followed a simple theater snob rule. No Broadway or West End revivals for me here. Only home-grown and original African theater. Like Zulu and Athol Fugard plays.

Mama Mia? Pass. Jersey Boys? You gotta be kidding. Rocky Horror Picture Show? I'm cool. Saw it in New York and London!




I recently made an exception to my unwritten rule with the one-man show Defending the Caveman. I saw the original in New York with the original caveman of course, Rob Becker. But recently I met Cathy Plewman whose husband Tim bought the book from Rob Becker and brought it to South African audiences years ago. Although penned by Rob Becker, Plewman adapted the script for Southern Africa and went on to win the Vita Award for Best Actor in a comedy. I think that makes it worthy of an exception to my rule.

Over a long, successful career, Plewman, of course, has been around the theater for forty years – reaching all the way back to works like Chorus Line, in its original London Production. After a five year hiatus on performing Caveman, Plewman stepped back onto the stage at Emperor's Palace for this past weekend only to add to his 1544 sold-out performances of the longest-running and most successful solo comedy in South African theater history. This humorous play about the hunter and gatherer in all of us has played to over one million people and many hundreds of sold-out shows.

Tim's version was very different from the Becker production Vince and I saw many years ago. Tim even began the evening by defining some of the local slang he would be using in his monologue. Thank goodness or we would have been totally lost! Every once in a while there would be a glimmer of the original Becker book, but Tim had done such a thorough job of South African-izing Defending the Caveman, it was like seeing it for the first time.

We went with another couple, Lila and Nigel. She is American-born and he is South African-born. Judging by the laughter coming from both of them, it appeared that Tim had managed to cross the cultural divide quite seamlessly. Bravo caveman!