There’s something special about theatre done right. It’s invigorating. It reaches inside and turns up the feeling alive switch, and it excites in a manner that television seldom does. And Clifton‘s Everyman, an almost 500-year-old play, adapted for the modern world, delivers in spades.
The original script, by an unknown author, was worked on by the production’s director, Phoebe Jordaan-Schoeman, and Hudda Muslim, and they made it contemporary with touches that brought familiarity to different aspects of the play.
To steal a quote from Wikipedia: “Everyman uses allegorical characters to examine the question of Christian salvation and what Man must do to attain it. ”
Describing the work done on the script performed on Tuesday evening, Jordaan-Schoeman said: We wrote the prologue and the epilogue. We worked on the death scene.
“There was a lot of chopping and changing and borrowing, very post-modern, from all types of scripts.”
It reminds one of when car manufacturers take the best bits from various models and put them together and it works, resulting in a fun, entertaining, brilliant driver’s car. Like the journey in those vehicles, the journey shared in The Sutcliffe Theatre was a joy to behold.
The acting was superbly executed, with a special tip of the hat to Mnqobi Mthethwa in the lead role of the title character, and Lucas Peria, who was sinister and spectacular as Death.
But it was about more than a few standouts. It was about the bringing together of the entire cast into a harmonious whole. This, too, was made possible by an exquisitely considered soundtrack, which elevated the story.
Jordaan-Schoeman said she had started putting the songs together last year, when she had decided on performing Everyman in Clifton’s Centenary year.
The choice of play, she wrote in the programme, came from asking many questions: “What have I not done at Clifton? What am I in the mood for? What is my diagnosis of our community and society at the moment? What do we need to hear? What would be good for our souls?”
Thus, she settled on “a morality play that asks the most important question of them all: ‘What does it mean to be a human being?'”
But back to the music. The songs, Jordaan-Schoeman said, were as important as the dialogue, and they aided in telling the story.
Timing in theatre is hugely important, and that dialogue was delivered impeccably. It was interesting and thought-provoking, and when the curtain came down on the show, one wondered, at first, whether or not there might be a halfway intermission. But no! Answers to questions had been shared. One-and-a-half hours had passed in the blink of an eye.
“I am incredibly proud of them,” Jordaan-Schoeman said of the cast.
Astonishingly, work on the play had begun only at the start of February, and the cast and crew had performed together for the first time only two days earlier. Before that, due to the busy Centenary and sports and choir commitments, an individualised schedule had been worked out for the different groups that made up the cast.
The entire cast and crew, though, had only Sunday, and then were given Monday, to focus on the play, as well. It was time well spent and, crucially, it gave the cast the bonding time that is so special, which people who have worked on productions know is a critical part of the reward for performing.
Not even a power failure caused a blip. It apparently went down during the performance, but none besides the performers knew about it. “We lost lights, but our technician, Steven Woodruff, is so phenomenal. He just lit it up and we continued until the lights came back,” Jordaan-Schoeman explained.
With a wide smile plastering her face, she added: “It has been a wonderful experience. I think it’s one of the most talented casts that I have ever worked with.”
Further performances take place on Wednesday and Thursday, 13 and 14 March. Do yourself a favour, you won’t regret it, buy yourself a ticket and go and enjoy an uplifting and entertaining evening.
To borrow a cliché, which exists because of the truth it holds: it’s not the things you do, it’s all the things you don’t do that you regret. Do it! You won’t regret it.
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