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"The Power of Prayer (Pvt) Ltd"
A review by Pai Domingu
An anecdote to the programme on "The
Power of Prayer (Pvt) Ltd" reads: "This play could be a worth-while
project for someone creative to research and write about", so, here goes:
I was privileged to have attended the
opening night of the Rooftop Productions latest play, "The Power Of Prayer
(Pvt) Ltd" by Birgit Schommer, now running at Theatre-In-The-Park.(6th
-16th February 2002).
I had been a bit worried by the title, and thought I was going to be watching
something to do with Born Again Christians. The cast as advertised was the
usual Walter Muparutsa, Jasen Mphepo, Eyahra Mathazia, and Bart Wolffe, with
new-found floor-board stompers, (for TITP anyway):Jane Houston-Green and O'Brien
Mudyiwenyama, so I thought. well, the usual from T-I-T-P, perhaps another
"Waiters(No.6?)".
Boy, oh boy, was it a laugh? What a tonic, considering the despondency and
gloom in our country at the moment! .
I must congratulate Birgit Schommer for
her well-researched work at writing this play.
The theme itself uses "prayer" as a tool towards making light, the
trauma experienced by car -jack victims, making fun of, and laughing at the
stupidity of car-jack gangsters and their crime masters..
Birgit has well-justified her profession as Lecturer In Modern Languages through
this piece. It would not surprise me to see her wining and dining with the
prominent persons of the prestigious " Club Of African Writers"
in the not too distant future..
I had the opportunity of talking to Birgit after the show, and she humbly
admitted to me that when she wrote the play, she could not visualise the end-product
of her second attempt at writing. Having just returned from a holiday overseas,she
was surprised to see it transmuted into a masterpiece by our own Bart Wolffe,
who directed it,(independently of the author) and plays a cameo role as Rev.
Geoffrey Carlisle.
I should also congratulate Bart for his ingenious "Minimal-Sets-In-Case-We-Tour-The-Play"
usage of only six pieces of set and props for the whole production. One wooden
door-frame; one bench; a stool; and two chairs plus folded blank pages of
paper used in the different scenes as a newspaper, are all that make up the
eyes-friendly set that the cast of six uses throughout!
.
Bart has graduated from the experimental theatre director that he is renowned
for, into a real professional this time around. Makes one wonder why one could
not fathom his director's skills in the past. Wonder whether it was his partaking
in the regional Southern Africa Theatre Initiative-sponsored directors' workshops
that has mutated him to such an expert!.
The usage of freezes and mime throughout the play was a refreshing aspect
to the whole production.This in itself brought with it a welcome breeze from
the "What-play-do-we-do-next-we-haven't-got-enough-time" syndrome
that has so bored audiences into yawning and sleeping during productions in
the past. No wonder producers and promoters complain incessantly about dwindling
theatre audiences!
Better "Blocking" though, could have averted the tiresome "Up-From-Chair;Down-Into-Chair;
Up-From-Chair & Move" movements that I found to be aimless from some
of the cast. Well-rehearsed blocking would have helped the cast move stage
left, or right, up and/or downstage for a purpose -bearing in mind that Theatre
In The Park is more suitable for theatre-in-the-round productions.
It would be grossly unfair of me to give
individual stars to the cast as they were all creative in their presentations.
The cast did justice to their roles by removing the type-cast "Waiters"
syndrome from each of their roles.
Giving Ehyara Mathazia a "French" accent brought a pleasant and
completely different character from the Ehyara that we have got so used to!
Her bravado and quick ready-made solutions that she dishes out make the evening
a theatre experience to be talked about for some time to come.Congratulations
for characterisation.
I would however suggest one weak link-that she tries to maintain consistancy
in her role as the "cunning rabbit of the show". Imagine a French
lady imitating Helen, an English lady, in genuine queen-mother English, or
the Shona cop at the police station with an authentic Shona accent - not very
credible! I would much rather have preferred her to imitate the two characters
by maintaining her thick French accent throughout, for both the English and
Shona imitations, otherwise we wouldn't have missed the punch of the jokes
that she inadvertently threw away.
Helen. brilliantly played by Jane Houston-Green,seemed
to me to have been the character that kept the irony and satire of the theme
in check through her reactions to otherwise very sullen situations. Being
car-jacked is a very traumatic experience, but her modus-operandi in watering-down
the trauma, and converting her sad situation into a pro-active taker of ideas
was such a relief - a professional indeed in our midst!
I would award O'Brian Mudyiwenyama with
the "Character-Of-The-Show" accolade for his role as the stammering
nerd of a car-jacker.
Casting directors/producers, here's a word of advice. We can always tell the
funny character players in various productions from the time they appear on
stage, and I tend to agree with some audience perceptions that the same people
are forever cast for similar roles in different plays, thus rendering them
monotonous and boring. We get so used to them that we know of situations where
they are likely to come up with funny lines, thus they pre-empt their efforts
at being funny.I suppose this maybe due to them having been seen as very funny
in their debut appearances, and they tend to be given the same characterisation
through several different productions. Changing characterisation for different
plays can always benefit the company and the actors - gives the actor "the
oomph", and gives the audiences the joy of coming to and gladly paying
for the next production.
O'Brian's body-language, even without having to say anything, is the vital,
new-found ingredient to this play. He is the source of humour of the play.
His role is fantastically played, - funny, creative, consistently stupid,
but is otherwise the darling of the play. Rooftop Productions, this is your
"Find-Of-The-Year", Keep it up O'Brian! Well done!!
As for clowning around, Jason maintains
his usual grip of keeping audiences eating from his hands.One of the most
rib-breaking scenes is when Jason and O'Brian, (the two car-jackers) use the
bench in the doorway for a radio interview - with Jason playing a young lady
nose-brigader from the suburbs, and O'Brian the radio interviewer! Jason is
very good as a clown, and it was good to see his attempt at playing his role
as a car-jacker (of South African origin, I thought) but for this rendition,
it might have been worth-while changing his character from the usual comic
into a hard-core, no-nonsense car-jacker,but still maintaining the humour.The
danger of maintaining the same characterisation made his "n'anga"
not very convincing - I'm not so sure whether to attribute this short-coming
to the director, or to Jason. N'angas are usually very serious-minded people,
albeit fakes at times!
It would not be fair of me not to mention
the character of the old-man-of-the-stage, Walter Muparutsa, who comes out
as a very temperamental and serious leader and organiser of the car-jackings.His
part is skilfully played with such venom, especially when he confronts the
young car-jackers for getting the first car stolen again by other car-jackers,
but 'lo and behold', he is such a coward when confronted and chased-up for
other cars by his own unseen boss.The veteran actor in Walter brings us the
malice of his bosses, the real organisers of the "trade". We see
the cruelty and selfish business-mindedness of the big boss through his portrayal
of the characters he plays. Although he deserved a beating from somebody for
his crude and devious life-style, I felt sorry for him at the end, though,
for having been done-over and hospitalised for lack of proper organisation
and being involuntarily responsible when things go wrong. Walter's memorable
performance gives credence to the adage: "An actor, like wine, matures
with age"
Finally. we have the director, Bart,
playing the reverend, in a very loud and pathetic role as a not-to-be trusted
man of the cloth. Despite his stature for the role, and the restrictions of
space in T-I-T-P, it was pretty obvious why he played the cameo role. Although
he managed to play the part as professionally as can be expected from Bart,
and for adding spice to the whole recipe, I am of the opinion that he should
have considered the idea of finding someone else to play the part.
All in all, this is the play that should
break the records at Rooftop's Theatre-In-The-Park! I envisage the producers
at Rooftop having to post-pone their next attraction due to full houses and
public demand for "The Power Of Prayer (Pvt) Ltd".
Congratulations to the producer, Daves Guzha, the co-ordinator, Tambu Nyakudya
and the team, for presenting us with this hilarious laugh-a-minute, 'miss-it-at-your-own-risk'
production.
Pai Dimingu.
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