Hinterland

Really, the timing could not have been any more perfect for the run of Hinterland at the Theatre on the Square. Like the nuclear disaster at Three Mile Island and The China Syndrome perfect. Remember that?

Lately, the newspapers have been full of headlines about the student protests leading up to the recent removal of the Cecil John Rhodes statue from the University of Cape Town campus, tentative plans to transfer the Paul Kruger statue from Church Square in Pretoria to the Voortrekker Monument, and the vandalism of Queen Victoria's statue in Port Elizabeth as well as other statues in The Company Gardens in Cape Town that depict historical figures active in politics before the era of the born-frees. Even Gandhi FFS!

some of the recent headlines

At the very least, the recent actions have proven that Rhodes and his legacy are still hot topics in the South Africa of 2015.

The play is about the (fictional) meeting of two giants of South Africa that could have changed the course of history. Deeply controversial at present and more than a hundred years after his death, Cecil John Rhodes still enjoys fame and notoriety, as Southern Africa’s arch-imperialist - while the multi-talented man of letters, Sol Plaatje, was one of the ANC’s founding fathers in 1912.

Sipho Mahlatshana as Plaatje and David Dukas as Rhodes

The plot of Hinterland has the two men, Plaatje and Rhodes, meeting while Kimberley is besieged during the Anglo-Boer War. In the autumn of his life, Rhodes, the king of diamonds, hires the young Plaatje as his new secretary and the two develop the unlikeliest of friendships, full of humour, warmth and pathos. But the country is changing and as Plaatje’s political career begins to dawn, the two men become set on a collision course which will change their lives.

I would have been totally in the dark if I had seen this play only three short years ago. But now, after extensive reading coupled with visits to the Anglo-Boer Battlefields, Kimberley and Cape Town which all figured prominently in the story, I probably understood 99.9% of what was said.

I had been to Groote Schuur and the Rhodes Memorial in Cape Town and am fairly knowledgeable about the life and times of Cecil John Rhodes thanks to my reading The Covenant. Unfortunately, I was completely unfamiliar with the play's other main character, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje. Luckily there was a mini-biography of Plaatje in the Playbill which I read before the curtain rose.

Educated in a mission school near Barkly West, Plaatje was conversant in eight languages including English and Dutch and he was widely regarded as one of the most influential black journalists of his time. He was a founder member and the first secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), the forerunner of the African National Congress (ANC).

But this was not some boring history lesson. The play was funny, tragic, surprising and immensely entertaining. Not to mention educational and extremely timely.  

Hinterland runs through April 25.

The Joburg Botanica "Smell-itorium"

Vince and I went to the Standard Bank Gallery to see an exhibit on Botanically Inspired Art in South Africa.

Along with the beautiful antique botanical watercolors and drawings ...

an iris by William Kentridge

... and works of art featuring botanical subjects by South African artists,

Painting and wire art sculpture

... there were displays of traditional crafts using plant material.

And displays on South African buildings whose architecture and design derive directly from botanical structuring. (Vince loved these!)

This was a really cool bubinga quilt made from a hardwood removed from the tropical rainforest of Gabon.

close-up of the wood veneer "cloth"

There were also historical letters and artifacts taken from botanical expedition voyages in and around South Africa. This is Captain Cook's actual signature from a letter he posted from the Cape of Good Hope in 1776!








I also learned the name of the strange Crayola flesh-colored flowering plant we saw in the Richtersveld. The Stapeliae Novae.

But the most interesting exhibit of all was what I am calling their Smell-itorium, a greenhouse-turned-scent-house. In it were displayed plants and beakers filled with the plant extract typically used for medicinal purposes.

@ the Chelsea Physick Garden

It was like a combination of the Chelsea Physik Garden in London and ...

a floral chemist explains the plant extraction process

... and an exhibit I saw smelled a few years ago at NY's Museum of Art and Design called "The Art of the Scent."

Like the NY exhibit where you could stick your nose into a dent in the wall and smell the associated perfume, ...

Vince smells some essence of ether

... in the smell-itorium, you could stick your nose in a beaker and smell the associated essence of the plant standing beside it.

Next week I am going to hear a lecture at the gallery on "The History of Medicinal Plants in South Africa" or as I am calling it, ...  "Muthi for Dummies."

Life is a Cabaret

Even in South Africa, ol' chum ...

We started 2014 off on the right note at the Second Annual Jazz & Blues Weekend at the Theatre on the Square in Sandton where we saw Cat Simoni perform her new show, Cat's American Songbook.

It was basically a Steinway and a singer performing her interpretation of The Great American Songbook. The classic combo for a Cabaret. With a classic repertoire from legends like the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, Hoagy Carmichael, Johnny Mercer, Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Leonard Bernstein and Cole Porter. Many of the songs were first introduced by Fred Astaire on a big screen version of New York in black and white musicals or performed live on The Great White Way by the likes of Ethel Merman.

a madcap 50th birthday party @ The Oak Room w Andrea Marcovicci

And it was a throwback to one of our favorite forms of New York entertainment over the years. From the 70's cabaret revival with the hipsters downtown at Reno Sweeny's to its heyday with the swells uptown. Julie Wilson, Mary Cleere Haran, Steve Ross, Karen Akers, Andrea Marcovicci, and Barbara Carroll at The Algonquin's Oak Room. Michael Feinstein at Feinstein’s at Loews Regency. Legendary Bobby Short at the Cafe Carlyle. 

Just the songs without the extraneous story. They're good enough to stand alone.

@ Feinstein's just prior to its closing in 2012

Many of New York's Cabaret venues are unfortunately gone now. Reno Sweeny's ... The Oak Room ... Feinstein's. All closed. To hear anything even close to The Great American Songbook live anymore in New York you have go to a Broadway revival. Or to Jazz at Lincoln Center's Allen Room in the Time Warner Building (which always seemed to me to be more like a museum than a cabaret supper club.)

Yes, the Cafe Carlyle is still open, but it cost between $155 to $205 to see Woody Allen play clarinet there on a Monday night! Crazy! We used to pay $25 at Michael's Pub to see him play and we thought that was a lot in the day. There was that pesky two drink minimum too.

But these things have cycles. Cabarets - like 70's style, swing dancing, and the slow food revolution before them - will return to ol' New York someday too. In the meantime, Cat Simoni will be performing the Ella Fitzgerald songbook in May at the Theatre on the Square in Sandton. And we'll be there!

The Theatre on the Square

Tucked away in a corner on Nelson Mandela Square is a little gem, the Theatre on the Square. Fifteen years old, the 200 seat venue was the first theatre in Sandton. They have mounted over 450 productions of comedy and cabaret shows, plays, children's theatre and musical revues.

And on Fridays at 12:45 for 1:00 pm, they have their popular Lunch Hour Classic Concerts. Recitals featuring the likes of soloists from Opera Africa and a piano and violin duo performing Festive Season Favorites.


The last lunch concert of the year is this Friday before they take a break until February. A nice little respite during your lunch hour.


 
FYI They also advertise some "Dinner and a Show" packages in cooperation with many of the restaurants on the Nelson Mandela Square. Inquire if you are interested.