Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The "Outside Eye"

Well its been jolly hard to sit vas in Jozburg, while the cast and Jen are 'doing the festival'. Although I have to say I have done my fair share of them, and I wouldn't have missed the arrival of my brandnewbaby niece for the world.

It all seems to be holding together, though news from Jen is scarce. I know what its like - you're constantly having to fend off people in silly hats, people trying to sell you silly hats or trying to get you to go and watch their show, old mates trying to get you to drink at 9 in the morning, and streetkids with never-ending renditions of shosholoza. If its not that, its working that damn village green and trying to recruit audiences. Hard work, all in the bitter cold. Do I sound like I wish I was there? Course I do! Every year if I'm not in Grahamstown for the first ten days of July, it feels all wrong.

So here's the review we got on the festival website. Its good to get some outside validation for stuff what we were trying to do. For the record, Paydirt is rooted in a character's journey - a simple quest narrative - but what we going for was to let the 'story' of Joburg's origins coexist with her story, and see how these mirror each other. Like Indra's web, perhaps. Little bits of the parts reflected in each other. Or something. He's quite right though, the play will definitely evolve. There's lots we still want to do with it. It'll be interesting to see what Joburg dwellers make of it.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Grahamstown here we come

Qaqambile. This character based on a real person that Nhlanhla, spoke to in Joubert Park.


Some friendly ghosts called George. Legend has it that George Harrison discovered gold in the rocks around these parts. Or was it George Walker? George Honeyball? All three battle it out, Goldrush style in Paydirt this Thursday... and Friday, and Saturday, and for a week after that.




Hoswa chats up Thandeka at Home Affairs...
All pics by Lisa Skinner

Wheweeee. Sorry about the disappearance. That's what happens when you're on the inside of a black box for three weeks being scriptwriter, director and marketing person.




Well, they're ready. I think. First performance tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm and I feel rather odd not to be there. Not for the first time, I'm faced with choosing art or life, and this time its life. My sister is due to deliver her baby into the world next week and I'm sticking around for that one, so the dear Paydirt cast are with Jen in Grahamstwon and I have every bit of faith in their ability to kick ass tomorrow, and the next day and the next and the next.



I think its turned out well. Oh, by September it will be a completely different play, I have no doubt, but for now, its working. It has a sweet simplicity to it - the core story, that is, while the rest - well, the stories and movement sequences layered into the story provide a kind of Joburg buzz. There are the history layers, and the jolting familiar oh yeah I know that moments - tequila drinking, lost in Joburg, reciting streetnames. I love those sequences, the gesturescapes that Jen has created.



Its exciting. I wish I could see it in front of an audience!







 
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Paydirt by Tamara Guhrs and Paydirt cast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 South Africa License.