Review: Election Fever
Playwright: Frederick Philander
Reviewer: Lize Kubersky
In my opinion, “Election Fever” had a handful of humorous moments. The satire that poked fun at politics, when Namibia had its first democratic elections in 1989, started rather wobbly, as the bench, the opening scene produced, was clearly a veteran prop – and was undoubtedly due for retirement.
A series of obstacles appeared right from the beginning of the play, as the acoustics of the Boiler House Theatre, disallowed the actors to reach full potential with their lines. I take note of the fact, that director Frederick Philander is promoting theatre in many ways, as well as venues, but one should reconsider promotion, when the level of understanding of the play is brought down due to the unsound clarity.
What is more is that the stage at the theatre also diminished the performance entirely. Every step that was taken – overshadowed the words. It disturbed the flow and the quality of the performance.
It was a pity that the actors had so much to compete with, but I applaud the conviction that was rendered to each character in the play. Actors had to play multiple roles in this comedy, but should focus on articulation in order to carry each role.
The fact that there was minimal technical assistance in the play, the actors had a more hands on job, which I think blended in well with this production, in view of the fact that it primarily depended on dialogue acting.
What is questionable is that the play was written shortly after independence in 1990, and it aimed to transport the audience back into history, exactly 17 years – but establishments like Ramatex, a project that only surfaced in 2001 in Namibia, was mentioned in the play.
In conclusion, theatre in Namibia is thriving – thus theatre criticism should be focussed on the performance in terms of content and the dramatic relevance of the piece. But surely, one has to showcase plays to their full potential and not have bombarding elements that affect the effectiveness of the piece.
Unless we target the obstacles that degrade the power of a performance, we will have a hard and unrewarding road to travel before we can even begin to practice theatre dimensions such as the A – Effect of Bertolt Brecht, concerned with encouraging audiences to think rather than becoming too involved in the story line and to identify with the characters.
Review
Play: Election Fever
Playwright: Frederick B. Philander
Reviewer: Zandra Balzer
The latest play of Committed Artists of Namibia that was staged as part of the Bank Windhoek Summer Festival, “Election Fever”, was absolutely entertaining.
If you did not attend you missed out on a lot of fun and comedy on the Namibian political scene. The work was performed to a packed house on opening night. The performances were great and the stage set-up was marvellous, authentically taking the audience back in time to the first democratic elections in 1989.
From my point of view, the stage work and its performers were totally up to standard. Watching this play reminded me of my grandmother’s stories on the first elections, but this time around the authenticity of the event came across more strongly and convincingly. I felt like I was there 17 years ago experiencing the pain and joy the people went through.
From an actor’s point of view the cast performed beautifully as a unit projecting a true sense of the elections all those years ago.
“Election Fever” was so real and enjoyable; people in the audience were laughing with tears rolling from their eyes. Some of them next to me almost fell from their seats with laughter because of the humour on the elections.
There was quite some fitting actions portrayed through the play, I don’t mean the ching chang kicking karate actions. I’m talking about real life action and face-to-face entertainment.
My personal opinion on the play is that it should be awarded some sort of a price.
If you missed this one make sure you see the last Committed Artists of Namibia four-play series at the end of November at the Boiler Theatre of the KCAC.
It would be worth your while.