Whatever
day of the week, No Good Friday written
by Athol Fugard (1958) speaks ideological volumes to a 21st century
Johannesburg audience. An iconic South African work, what, No Good Friday, directed by Samuel Ravengai (PhD Theatre and
Performance) begs on a Tuesday
evening is WHY? Why here, why now, and why a student production performed by
our first generation of born-frees?
First
enacted in Johannesburg’s Bantu Men’s Social Centre in 1958 and now, at Wits University’s
Downstairs Theatre in 2014 by young theatre scholars; the hub of Braamfontein
reflects the content of thematic debates around racial consciousness and social
power in a modern setting. Braamfontein is a contemporary space of youthful
integration where rainbow-generation young adults meet and debate contemporary
post-Apartheid South African politics. No
Good Friday, performed by a student cohort, paralleled these similar social
activities.
The
narrative follows the character, Willie’s journey, played by Nolo Mmeti,
through disillusionment of the value of black intellect and a BA degree, in the
traumatic face of the ethical principles against freedom and wasted life. The
irony is that without the opened consciousness from tertiary education, Willie
may not have found conscience in such a hard place. Thematically, the tensions
of Apartheid’s racial binaries and oppressive systems are secondarily present through
the character’s testimonies of their working relationship with the white boss.
Inside the play, the conflicts of power and oppression exist through mobster
control within the racial demographic of late 1950’s Sophiatown. The resistance
of newcomer, Tobias, against the mob’s established means of control results in
his violent murder and sets Willie along an unravelling path of distressed relationships,
friendships, religion and himself.
Conservative
but charming, Andrea Van Der Kuil’s set design used found materials- corrugated
iron, timber, old clothes and furniture – to capture the socio-environmental impact of
an economically disempowered group. A demure aesthetic palette warmed the eye
with maroons, browns and creams, accentuated by the occasional burst of blue. An
enchanting, if unprogressively, vision! The costume design reached to recreate
the iconic street fashion of 1950’s Sophiatown, but too many two toned shoes
and pin striped suits looked gimmicky in this day and age. However, emphasising
the jazz association of the era linked Ravengai’s No Good Friday with its 1958 counterpart (performed largely by
musicians), and its black consciousness American equivalent.
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| Andrea Van Der Kuil's set |
A student
production, those who could act shone from their two toned shoes, embodying the
jazz imbibed vigour of then Sophiatown through to rhythmical feet. Unfortunate
technical noise and crude audio transitions made the challenge for those
reaching for presence and technical proficiency that much harder. Bradley Cebekhulu, performing Tobias,
sensitively explored his social and intellectual status as an outsider from
rural South Africa, a newcomer to Sophiatown. His submissive body language, yet
assuring voice articulated the tension between Willie and himself. His murder
at the hands of the mob was touching, as a character he was endeared to the
audience, and the alluring-repugnant energy of mobsters (Themba Twala and
Malebogo Mqoboli) was compelling. Tobias introduced themes of assimilation, and
failure to succumb to the corrupt powers that be (to some, known as success).
Malebogo
Mqoboli, who played mobster Harry, contrasts the puppet of power who violently
murders Tobias with current states of criminality and social corruptions
against humanity. His reflection casts a lens on the devaluation of life
experienced in South Africa, as well as the interactive, social violations of
freedom enacted in our post-Apartheid, democratic state.
First and foremost we still have a
high rate of crime, in particular in most South African townships. There
are gangsters (a character like Shark) in the townships
who take people's belongings and kill innocent souls every weekend
and every month end. The community does not want to get involved and does not
want to inform the police, it is better to keep quite. Black women are heavily
abused and raped by their male counter-part. Children are being kidnapped.
Regarding
Ravengai’s choice of text, Fugard’s text forms part of the core of a South
African canon of literature, that clearly still holds social relevance. Issues
of assimilation as experienced by Tobias are universal, and no less so for
post-Apartheid experience of youth moving from rural and country settings, into
a big metropolitan city. Like Tobias, one meets a new language that needs be
learnt in order to survive. This, as a first generation post-apartheid young
adult, I translate to language of oppression. As millennials, raised by social
media and virtual imaging, I identify languages of materialism, consumption and
narcissism as the hidden structures that control and oppress our collective
existence. In this regard, I think No
Good Friday, as an allegorical
text (as well as historic) in the present, contains curious echoes.
As much
as I admire Fugard, the prioritisation of a male point of view concerning social,
political and economic ideas reflects the wrong side of history. And
unfortunately, in the case of No Good
Friday, it is wholly prioritised. In a play that thematically centres power
and oppression, the very form and content reaffirm the oppression of women. The
picture of gender relations painted by the text can only be critiqued in its
stereotypical range of controlling or submissive husbands (Willie or Watson),
and their domesticated women whose only objectives are marriage. Indeed, there
is an overwhelming ratio of more than three males for every female, and only
one of which (female) has any kind of substance/objective (marriage). Kelly
Eksteen, the actress playing Rebecca said,
As a contemporary female actress I struggled a
lot with No Good Friday. See, as much as the play promotes a universal human
message I feel that as performers that sometimes gets lost on us. Rebecca is a
1950's woman, her job and ambition in life is to be a woman to her man and as a
modern woman I know otherwise, also I come from a long line of strong ambitious
women.
Regarding
Ravengai’s choice to direct No Good
Friday at an academic institute in 2014, which caters for both males and
females; the requirements of the text seriously misrepresent the present social
and intellectual currency we work with. It is my hope but not my knowledge,
that therein lies a conscious statement, as in his works as a writer Trauma Centre (2001) and On the Brink (2000), Ravengai scripts gender-integrated
texts.
No Good Friday’s run at the Wits Downstairs Theatre
has reached its end, but no doubt more will be coming from director Samuel
Ravengai and his cast of thirteen.
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| The director, Samuel Ravengai, (left) with John Kani (right) having a post-performance discussion with cast on the closing night. |
