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African Gothic

Published Tuesday 8 May 2007 at 16:40 by Evelyn Curlet

James Perkin’s atmospheric design transports White Bear’s small stage to a ruined farmhouse in South Africa, where light bulbs hangs from wires and planks criss-cross the flats, boarding up the devastation within.

Reza de Wet’s play follows the fortune of two feral siblings, whose parents have been murdered and whose arrested state of development sees them incapable of keeping the farm in workable condition. Instead, they struggle with their own demons as it falls to waste around them, surviving only due to the ministrations of loyal servant Alina (Cleo Sylvestre).

Kaisa Hammarlund delivers an astonishing, powerhouse performance as the woman-child Stussie, who flits magnetically between girlish flightiness and the god-fearing, stern disposition of her mother, whose presence seems to possess her sporadically. It is a captivating portrait of a character riddled with neuroses.

She is reminiscent of a Tennessee Wiliams heroine, and indeed the evocative script could be the literary offspring of Williams and Edgar Allen Poe in its humid, claustrophobic and decaying grandeur.

Tom Robertson puts in a solid performance as Stussie’s brother Frikkie. It would be satisfying to get a stronger sense of wild menace that clearly underpins his character.

All in all, a tense and thrilling piece of theatre.

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