The brutal truth of life in South Africa is played out superbly in a fast-paced show
Township Stories Theatre Royal, Stratford East
You really want to like Township Stories, an account of life in black South Africa written and directed by Mpumelelo Paul Grootboom, who himself grew up in Soweto. But you also fear it is going to be a bit worthy, probably a bit sad, most likely a bit political. Two minutes after the lights go down, however, you realise you have been hurled into a fantastically contemporary piece of artistic expression that owes more to Tarantino than to Athol Fugard. Or, God help us, Ipi Tombi.
A girl is running round and round on stage; she is shouting with fear because she is being chased by an unseen assailant. He (we assume it's a man) grabs her arm, her leg. He pushes her down. He rapes her. He murders her. And thus the story of life in a South African township begins; although the way Grootboom makes us see it, there is no beginning, and there is certainly no end.
For just as soon as we are settling down into what we mistakenly think will be the conventional unfolding of a thriller, Grootboom and his co-writer, Presley Chweneyagae, start to mess about with conventional dramatic structure. Time is rewound, compressed, collapsed and thrown up in the air. Action stops while a sexy ballet is performed. A woman is beaten up by her lover, each punch horrifically amplified by the huge cast, who throw off pieces of clothing in time to the brutality. A boy is born, raised, loved and bereaved in a car crash, all in the space of about 90 seconds. If nothing else, this is the type of inventive theatre many British productions yearn to achieve.
Sixteen actors play 20 characters whose lives, loves and boozing interweave frantically over . . . what? Twenty years? Nine months? Maybe both. The sound of loud laughter, gunshots and the double curse of alcohol and extreme violence courses through it all. Politics? This may be post-apartheid South Africa, but no one here is interested in Mandela, in Mbeki, in white people, in "the big picture".
What Grootboom is showing us, of course, is very much the big picture. It's just a visceral, personal one. He kicks off with a murder, which is quickly followed by sex, booze, birth, rape, abortion, incest and serial killing, depicted by the cast with non-stop energy to a thrilling musical score that includes Simon and Garfunkel, Norah Jones, Kurt Weill and kwaito music. Even though the set is minimal, you can practically smell the oranges, the beer, the sweat and the dirt of the place. About his youthful experiences in Soweto, Grootboom has said: "It was a mixture of good and bad, but mostly bad." And here, without a doubt, he pulls no punches.
This is no nostalgia trip; in this anonymous place, there is no cosy community spirit, very little loyalty and absolutely no security. This is the story of an utterly lawless place where sex rushes beneath and around like a river. How did black South Africans cope, forcibly cooped up like this? The production has such authenticity, one feels it must come pretty close to telling the truth.
Particularly outstanding are Koketso Mojela, as Matlakala, a knowing schoolgirl who occasionally turns to the audience in droll soliloquy ("I smoke. I drink. I fuck . . .") and her lover Dario (Thato Moraka), a thin and dangerous Tarantino baddy translated to the corrugated-iron shacks of South Africa's cities. You feel quite sorry for him at first, when he gets his balls burned by a crooked policeman with a cigarette lighter. When you get to know him a bit better, you feel quite differently. Indeed, the same could be said of chilling and hideous Rocks, the policeman: I came to dread each time Boitumelo Shisana stepped on stage.
It was one of those rare evenings where you forget you are watching actors playing invented roles. Township Stories is wholly engrossing, shocking and dire. Should you catch it, and I hope you do, you will have an evening that picks you up and carts you off to the dangerous centre of the brutal, ugly and frantic black South African urban experience, without so much as a backward glance.
For further info and booking details visit www.stratfordeast.com
Pick of the week
The Marriage of Figaro
New Players Theatre, London WC2
Tara Arts sets Beaumarchais's play at the end of the Mughal empire.
Summer and Smoke
Apollo Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1
Little-known Tennessee Williams masterpiece, directed by Adrian Noble and starring Rosamund Pike.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Royal Exchange, Manchester
August Wilson's classic set in 1920s Chicago. With Antonio Fargas (aka Huggy Bear).
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
