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Fair is foul and foul is fair
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March 3, 2009
By Atiyyah Khan
MacBeki
Director: Christopher Weare
Written by: Pieter-Dirk Uys
Performers: Rosa Whitcher, Mpho Kgosana, Trudy Van Rooy, Themba Mchunu, Lerato Motshwarakgole, Gerald Dhunrajah, Abongile Kroza, Rudi Swart, Gabriel March and Chase Downs.
Venue: The Little Theatre
Until: March 21
Rating: HHHII
If there is anyone who could parody our current political situation accurately, it is Pieter-Dirk Uys.
And by that I mean if he was acting in this production. While Uys has written a script overflowing with brilliant ideas, MacBeki comes off as a student production, and aptly so, as acted by UCT drama students.
Here we have the story and characters of Shakespeare's Macbeth representing South African politics.
MacBeki (Mchunu), MacZum (Downs), MacTrev (Swart) and Lady Manta (Motshwarakgole) often recite direct verse from the original play.
The story revolves around the leadership of South Africa being passed along the years.
The old King Maduba (Kroza) is stepping down and MacBeki and Lady M have taken hold of the reigns.
Power, corruption and greed is appropriately satirised.
Fast-forward and soon we are "Um-shini-wam-ing" with MacZum and MacTrev.
Three witches are disguised as newspaper journalists and corrupt businessmen.
We know the story and how it happens. Except we didn't know that MacBeki has a particular fetish for Celine Dion.
If you're a Shakespeare purist, steer clear as lines such as, "Is this the Ipod I see before me" will have you cringing in your seat.
The play is difficult to watch because the characters don't really become believable, with the exceptions of Lady Manta, portrayed excellently by Motshwarakgole as the conniving, overzealous drunken accomplice to Macbeki and the porter played by Gabriel Marchand, the voice of reason but also the newly-disadvantaged white male population.
Points of annoyance: The Asian nurse talking in a cutesy "me wuv you wong time" accent is possibly the pinnacle of pain. The Celine Dion tangent, however amusing, feels unnecessary.
Our political situation is definitely easy to poke fun at and Uys succeeds at pointing out that "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" by highlighting important issues Thabo Mbeki ignored such as HIV and Aids and Zimbabwe.
Considering the levels of satire, the students couldn't pull off the wit convincingly.
I really wanted to like this production and with the amazing talents of Uys and Christopher Weare behind it, I was sure of its success.
The content is brilliant, but unfortunately, the cauldron just doesn't bubble in this one.
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