Muse Vibes – with Frederick B. Philander Three interesting contemporary plays are currently on at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, and I managed to see at least one of them last weekend – quite an expensive cultural evening for my wife and myself at N$130 per person per ticket! It is my age-old custom and habit to see at least one play during any time I visit Johannesburg to get, as an active playwright, the gist of contemporary theatre tendencies in South Africa, the barometer of real theatre in Africa! We had to toss a coin to decide which play we were going to see that Friday evening. The choice was between Flipping the Script by Bobby Rodwell, a play taking a look at South African men as bad lovers, fortunately to be staged later this year in Namibia, and Shirley Goodness and Mercy a novel by Chris van Wyk and adapted for the stage by guru South African stage director, Janice Honeyman. Needless to say, I won the toss and we opted for the latter play at N$130 per show. That brings me to our local theatre-goers constantly moaning when they have to pay a measly N$50 to see a play in the capital. The same applies to any visit to Cape Town. Now my artist and theatre support fans and followers, read my lips! We in Namibia are way back and off-track compared to the rest of the world regarding the value of our stage works – considered to be local is lekker and has to be automatically cheap! Performing artists should really start properly valuing their works to be able to economically survive in the very competitive performing arts market locally and internationally. By the way, we were both very proud of the fact that a Namibian actress, Zenobia Kloppers, was cast in the Shirley Goodness … she satisfactorily portrayed her double roles as a young girl and an over-seventy ouma admirably. No wonder she stood out among the predominantly Cape Town cast who satisfactorily portrayed Coloured people from Riverlea in Johannesburg. An interesting thing is that Zenobia owns her own theatre company and is apparently doing very well. Her parents, Andy and Frieda, should be proud of her artistic achievements in a foreign land. The play, starring television star, Zane Meas, of 7de Laan-fame in the lead role as the narrator, literally tells the tale of the Transvaal Coloured community under apartheid. The first half of the drama unfolded rather tediously, and I initially had difficulty associating myself with the content. This can be ascribed to the fact that I grew up in a totally different apartheid-infested society closer to Cape Town and far away from Johannesburg. The ever-present narrator, something I have been warning Namibian playwrights against using in their writings for almost three decades now, also didn’t work the way it should have. However, to me the star of the drama was a young actor, Christo Davids, grandson of the legendary stage and screen actor, Goliath Davids, and a native of Heidelberg in the Cape. This young man can really go places with his acting career. Shirley Goodness…is to be staged in July at the annual Grahamstown Arts Festival. So, if you travel to Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape now and during the Grahamstown Festival, make sure you catch this captivating stage drama.