Category: Reviews

Theatre, food, places and things, judged honestly and rated. Sometimes the rating is 2 stars and the review is the fun part.

  • THE RED ON THE RAINBOW

    THE RED ON THE RAINBOW

    Play.
    An old woman hobbles across the stage. Her back hunched, her neck extended, and face crumpled. In a raspy voice filled with a lifetime of pain and anger and a cold determination, she delivers her line; demanding to see the man who killed her son.
    Pause.

    I am in awe. I am in awe because this is not an old lady I am watching. It is a young actress, and I
    forget this as she deforms and contorts her posture, her face and her voice until all I can see is an old
    woman grieving for a slain son. She has truly and thoroughly embodied the character she is playing.

    Play.
    Beyond the gate stands an equally angry Afrikaans farmer refusing to give up his son. In a
    commanding tone, he urges the police commissioner to dispatch the swelling angry mob at the edge
    of his gate. He threatens angrily before raising the gun in his hand.
    Pause.

    I teeter at the edge of my seat. Heart racing, tension thick in the air, as I silently urge for restraint. I no
    longer see the actress playing the farmer. I only see a father desperately trying to protect his son
    from an agitated mob.

    Play.
    The mob gets angrier and angrier pushing against the thin fence. The farmer gets desperate. And
    then. Bang! The farmer shoots.

    The scene pauses. Silence veils the stage. The old woman glares defiantly at the farmer. The farmer’s
    angry face glowers back at the old woman and the mob at her back with only the fence between
    them.

    I draw my breath, waiting. Waiting for the scene to continue, waiting to know who was shot. waiting
    to see how this terrifying story ends.

    In that pause, I look across the stage marvelling at what has been created here. There is no gun on
    that stage, no fence, no swelling mob. Just 5 talented actors using their bodies to tell a rich and vivid
    story that asks one important question; is this the rainbow that the rainbow nation was promised.

    The Red on the rainbow is a masterfully written and superbly acted play of something that took place
    on a farm in the town of Coligny. The red on the rainbow is the very definition of theatre. You should
    go watch it now to find out what happens to the old woman. You should go watch it now here in
    South Africa before it is recognised by the rest of the world and you must take connecting flights to
    see it in Broadway, New York.

    I give “The red of the rainbow” a masterfully crafted 5 stars

  • Modernly authentic

    Modernly authentic

    #ConventionalReview Kota Paleis Braamfontein

    I have often pondered what makes something authentic.

    Is it time? Must something be passed through generations and accepted by all in order to gain the status of authentic?

    What about immutability? Must it remain static, unchanged, fixed in its form for all eternity; at the threat of losing authenticity with the slightest modernization?

    Must it be unique? Can there only be one authentic thing of it’s kind? So much so that it can no longer be adopted nor adapted?

    I ask because there is nothing special about this place. It’s kotas are stripped of pretense, there is not much quality in its ingredients, the facilities consist entirely of 5 small tables and 15 chairs scattered scarcely across the eating area.

    Yet I found it authentic.

    I found it authentic because Kota Paleis is exactly what it appears to be. A low cost, no-frills, clean budget food for students with no budget.

    I found it authentic because in 20 years a group of friends will meet for a drink in an upmarket bar and trade stories of days gone by when they were students, and all they could afford was a kota at what to them would have become the legendary Kota Paleis.

    That for me is authenticity.

    I give the Kota Paleis a modernly authentic 3 stars.