The Village is Booming

[A review of "The Village" performed as part of the 969 Festival]

What would you do if a giant of a man with godly good looks and mountainous muscles washed up on your shore?“

The Village” was originally created as a final physical theatre exam exhibition which was performed at the end of 2015 by the five talented students. It was very well received over the two nights ending with audiences jumping out of their seats and whistling at the curtain call. So if the people wanted more, they were gonna get it. These young ladies knew they had a speck of gold and that this was just the beginning. So they continued to develop the piece in 2016 and re-launched it with a bang at the O-week festival from which it was selected to represent the university on the student main platform at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. It has now travelled back home and is being showcased at the 969 Festival.

The story is an adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.” You enter the theatre to a bunch of drunken sailors on stage downing one drink after the next, clumsily falling about and being all round rowdy in general. Once the doors close, lights dim and audience hushes, the show begins and we are washed into the world of the sailors who have realized that their drunken stupor has led them to get lost and are consequently approaching the land of… Africa!

With vibrant energy and focus we are comfortably whirled through the worlds of the story. From the sailors we move along to the small and boring village with nothing but chickens and frivolous attempts at market bargaining. That is until a great giant of a man appears on their shores sending the women into a love-crazed frenzy and the men into jealous binge drinking.

The story is sprinkled with a touch of home as it makes references to the South African quirks we love so much. In an essentially minimalist style using nothing but the voices and bodies of the performers in a small space we are allowed glimpses of many perspectives, characters, flashbacks and add-ons; no doubt influenced by their training with Roberto Pombo in tréteaux theatre. Pombo has a well established career, amongst many more achievements; having worked alongside Jemma Kahn and performed in “Father, Father, Father!” which won an Ovation Award at NAF 2015.

The auditorium is filled with laughter throughout this comedic piece. Although that comedy often plays to stereotyped characters such as unsatisfied housewives and having the only white actress playing the racist Afrikaans lady – these are traits we as an audience can recognize and laugh at hopefully with some reflection.

The play ends with the moral of learning to let go, which is no sad ordeal as the song “I Got Joy in my Heart” is beautifully sung and harmonized whilst they return their beloved Esteban to the sea whence he came; leaving a little magic in my heart and a song in my head.

Find out more about the Festival at https://www.wits.ac.za/witstheatre/whats-on/969-festival/

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