Old Money
Shakespeare ZA is pleased to publish new work by South African poet Geoffrey Haresnape - a poignant take on King Lear.
OLD MONEY
“I am a very foolish, fond old man
Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less
And to deal plainly,
I fear I am not in my perfect mind”
1.
He has been –
when all is said and done –
at the top of the heap.
But now
with geriatric issues
kicking in
it seems the time
to leave his assets
for the younger strengths
of his attractive daughters.
A will and testament
divides his estate
into three portions –
weighted to reflect
his children’s relative importance.
This document
is shown them in his sick room
Clearly, there are spoils for the taking.
Some ‘oos’ and ‘ahs’ –
together with awareness of the Reaper
waiting in the wings –
seduce him to indulge himself.
“Tell me, my daughters
whom of you shall I say loves me most?”
The eldest
croons arpeggios.
Dearer than eyesight she loves him,
dearer than life, beauty, health, honour.
Her father flourishes
like a rain-frog
in her flood of eloquence.
Before her eyes he dangles
wine farms, a city penthouse, blocks of flats
in ownership perpetual
to herself and all her family.
This done, he asks:
“What says my second daughter?”
He finds
her just like the first ...
excepting that
her heart belongs exclusively
to daddy.
This is his little kitten!
The patriarch is smitten;
as many titbits of his real estate
as he has promised to her sister
are dropped into her bowl.
A third remains:
his favorite, tender, youngest,
lovely one.
She understands him
like his own heartbeat.
She’ll outdo what the others say
and make him special.
“What can you say
to draw a third
more opulent than your sisters?”
Her too brief answer
is a body-blow.
Panickey,
he advises her to use more words.
“Nothing will come of nothing.”
He sees her jaw-line
that is like his own
jut stubbornly
as she presents
some argument.
“I cannot heave my heart
into my mouth”
She tells him,
that her love is as it ought to be.
No more, nor less.
Does she believe
that she’ll expropriate his land
without a word
of heart-felt compensation?
Dementia’s tapeworm
squirms up
from his gut
to touch his tongue root
with its obscene tickling.
He rises on one elbow
in his bed to bluster:
“Get out of my sight.
You truth will be your legacy.
Your sisters can
digest your share.”
He’s hot to crush her with a codicil.
2.
Time shows its pulses
in a million digitals
while some old clockwork
strikes the hours
in a traditional way.
Two girls
that once were honey sweet
are souring
grudging.
They put their trust
in lipstick and mascara,
driven
by their large libidos,
sassy thighs.
All alone
he bangs his temple
with a weary fist.
His weakness
needs the crumbs
that they let fall
from their expensive tables.
The youngest one
is with her partner
far away.
At last he’s told
that his disease
is terminal.
Oh, the waves of weakness:
how they come.
Each finger’s movement is a weight.
His breaths go in and out in toil.
Why did he spurn his dearest? Why?
He is afraid to change
what his legalities have done.
3.
Six thousand patient miles
and then her Uber scrunches to his door.
What smiles
and consternations!
What tears
when his too greatly absent darling
touches him.
He feels
that he is necklaced
with a burning tyre
of shame.
“I know you do not love me.
You have some cause.”
She will not hear
of it.
Her hand
upon his cheek
is balm.
4.
Knowing
that she will visit him again ...
he sleeps and dreams.
His certainty forgets
the slips and slides
of the beloved country.
Her lodging is attacked
by what they call the crowbar gang
and she becomes the victim
of an undiscriminating blade.
Some thirty stab wounds
mutilate her neck
and unresisting back.
She is bled out
before the parameds arrive.
He howls and howls.
Frail age
cannot contain this thing.
They take him in a wheel-chair
to the view-site
in the funeral home.
The staff
have cosmetized
her lacerations well.
She’s clenched
inside her open coffin
like a broken doll.
He wonders why
a dog, a horse, a rat
should have that thing
called life
and she no life at all.
She will not come again.
The family flinch
to hear him start his mantra
of the “Never” word.
So great a load, so great a load
of love and suffering.
Between the spoked wheels
of his senile chariot
he seems to wilt
like some old oak tree
severed from its roots.
Suddenly his throat
is clicking
Does he believe
her patched-up effigy
still breathes?
Can he be hoping
at the heart of loss?
An awkward smile
irradiates his wrinkles.
as his carer wheels him out
into a blaze
of light.
Antony: Two Things
Here at Shakespeare ZA we are constantly seeking to grow our collection of resources for teachers and learners. The latest addition is an insightful essay about Antony and Cleopatra (the current Grade 12 set work for IEB schools) by Johannesburg-based teacher Mary van Zyl. In it, she discusses the conflict between “Roman Antony” and “Egyptian Antony”.
Download “Antony: Two Things” as a PDF
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary van Zyl (nee Barrett) has an Honours degree in Fine Arts and an Honours degree in English, both from the University of Stellenbosch. She also earned an MA in English from UNISA. Her dissertation looks at three science fiction/fantasy protagonists in the work of Ursula K le Guin through the lens of the Jungian archetype of the Anima. She has been teaching English at tertiary or secondary level for the last 18 years. Her areas of particular interest are Science Fiction and Shakespeare.
Richard III comes to Maynardville
Something wickedly Shakespearean has piqued the interest of Colin Ford, resident word nerd at CN&CO …
Colin is king of the #kakselfie (as you can see here)
Shakespeare loved writing wicked kings, didn’t he?
The scheming, gnarled, sometimes comic Richard III totally fits the bill in this regard. Here in South Africa (and, in fact, in most places around the world) we’ve seen our fair share of shenanigans in the upper echelons of political power in recent times. And so the Maynardville production of Richard III may not have too much shock value. But it does promise to be a superb show with a plot and loads of sub-plots that ring true.
Director Geoffrey Hyland sums it up nicely: “Shakespeare's musings on self-interested power and twisted ambition continue to resonate today. Richard III is the timeless and universal story of the rise and fall of one of Shakespeare’s most thrilling and charismatic villains. Through rumour, fake news and false narratives, with a devilish wit and fuelled by revenge, Richard aims at the crown and destroys all who stand in his way, including those closest to him.”
This production stars award-winning actor Alan Committie in the title role, with Anthea Thompson as Queen Margaret, Lee-Ann van Rooi as the Duchess of York, Andrew Laubscher as the Duke of Buckingham, Bianca Mannie as Lady Anne, Cassandra Mapanda as Queen Elizabeth, Sanda Shandu as Richmond, David Viviers as Lord Hastings, and Cape Talk’s John Maytham as Lord Stanley. Matthew Bobby Stuurman, Tailyn Ramsay, Damon Munn, Tafara Nyatsanza and Sam Alexander also appear in the ensemble.
Richard III forms part of the second Maynardville Open-Air Festival, featuring a programme of music, dance, comedy and more, under the stars. It’s a great opportunity to gather your friends, pack a picnic basket and soak up the magic of Maynardville.
Richard III will run Mondays to Saturdays from 7 February until 9 March 2019 at 8.15pm. Tickets cost from R150 to R220. Bookings can be made online at Computicket, or call 0861 915 8000 or visit at any Shoprite Checkers outlet.
Review: Macbeth at the Pieter Toerien Theatre
Reviewed by Eddie and Marguerite de Waal
Fred Abrahamse's Macbeth, which showed between August and September at Pieter Toerien's Montecasino Theatre, was an exercise in artistic ingenuity. With a cast of only six male actors (performing a play which usually boasts close to thirty characters), the production went far in showing what can be achieved on stage within particular limitations.
The dark, eerily distorted atmosphere of the play was established with minimal stage paraphernalia. A large table filled most of the acting space, effectively doubling as a stage within a stage. Moving around and on top of this construction allowed the actors to express intriguing shifts in dynamics between hospitality and violence, formality and anarchy, distance and intimacy (after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were seated at opposite ends of the gigantic table, in contrast to their meeting on the table-as-stage in scheming companionship earlier in the play). Furthermore, clever use was made of puppets to represent younger characters such as Banquo's son, Fleance. The three witches would have fit perfectly in a modern horror film, floating about the stage, robed with black veils and wearing animal skull masks.
Tristan de Beer as Lady Macbeth and Tailyn Ramsamy as Banquo offered particularly strong performances. De Beer, with no falsetto, no wig and no drag, was a very able Lady Macbeth. He is a strong actor with good voice control and clear diction, and it takes, interestingly, much less time than expected to get used to the idea of Lady Macbeth played by a male actor. Also, the dissonance in Lady Macbeth's 'unsexed' character is underscored even more strongly by the fact that she is not played by a woman. Ramsamy's Banquo is innocent and well-meaning, but also much more aware than the gullible Duncan, and duly suspicious of his friend's ascent to the throne.
Ramsamy's doubling as Lady Macduff was less successful, largely because of the odd interpretation of the scene in which she and her son are murdered. The scene starts with a potentially endearing interaction between mother and son, and is shattered by violence when they are murdered by Macbeth's men. The effect of this was lost, however: the table-stage pushed Ramsamy's Lady Macduff to the extreme right, and held her son (represented by a puppet) remote at the other end. Lady Macduff was aloof, sunglassed, cross-legged and cold, and died at a distance while the puppet-child was drowned in his bowl of porridge. The strangeness of this scene also broke the continuity with Macduff's grief when he is told the news of the slaughter of his family.
Aside from this, the production was cohesive in its interpretation, immersing the audience in the world of the play and engaging them in the downfall of its main characters. The somber mood benefitted from counter-balancing by the character the porter (Jeremy Richard), who in this case also doubles up as a servant in other scenes. This darkly comic figure therefore appeared at intervals throughout the production, contributing to an underlying sense of horrific absurdity.
Staging the play must have required exceptional focus and coordination from the entire cast (each actor, according to the cast list, played a minimum of three characters) and creative team; this was done with great success. We look forward to any future productions of Shakespeare at the Pieter Toerien Theatre.