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South Africa: Theatre - Pregnant Pause
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
26 March 2008
Posted to the web 26 March 2008
Mary Jordan
Johannesburg
PREGNANT PAUSE at the Old Mutual Theatre on the Square in Sandton is an endlessly resourceful and entertaining mimodrama, a mime-play that uses the art of movement, gesture and facial expression to create a striking theatre of silence that speaks directly to the mind and the emotions.
In an enchanted view of a couple alive with a sense of unity and affection, the spoken lines brim with humour and psychological truth. You will surely come to care about the characters, and recognise the tender uncertainties in their relationship while rejoicing in the small and wonderfully silly moments that cement it.
The overall spirit of daring experimentation that underscores the production is indebted to the theatrical tradition of the commedia dell'arte, and follows directly in the footsteps of Jean-Louis Barrault, his wife Madeleine Renaud and their star pupil, Marcel Marceau, who performed together half a century ago at the Theatre Marigny on the Champs Elysees.
On a bare stage, with only a minimum of props, Michael Richard and Charmaine Weir-Smith will re-enact a modern telling of the story of Harlequin and Columbine, carrying the audience's imagination with them as they conjure, seemingly out of thin air, geese scrabbling for bread chunks, comforting pots of tea at home, and an interactive audience at a prenatal class. It is extraordinarily affecting as the two of them build a romantic tension that informs the dynamic throughout, finding hidden riches and seams to explore in a study of a completely ordinary couple in an extreme, yet absolutely ordinary, situation.
There are wonderfully intense insights and remarks that are acutely perceptive and thoroughly aware of the human condition in a script and plot that is a collaborative effort between Richard, Weir-Smith and the director, Sylvaine Strike.
These three are technically fine-tuned artists who are marvellously inspired by the growing rapport between the likable and unpretentious people they have created; and then the trio set out to make their audience realise the significance of the tiniest moment.
The audacious recorded musical inserts have colloquial cunning as well as charm, becoming a playful grace note to the action, simply defining a situation or adding to the narrative with good-natured clout.
When Weir-Smith enters as Clara, the straps and bows on her tippy-tippy red shoes are reminiscent of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, or even of Gwen Stefani. From the first, she displays a cool curiosity as she steps on to an emotional roller coaster, moving from being a hauntingly seductive wife to an exhausted young mother. Her nausea, backache and sleep deprivation are conveyed with voluptuous physical vulnerability and a wry smile. As the midwife Geraldine, a militant feminist firebrand, Weir-Smith is beady-eyed, tart, cloaked in a frosty disregard. Always she is arresting, skittish and downright funny, a magnetic sprite with an ingenuous imagination.
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Michael Richard you will last have seen at the Johannesburg Civic as the boisterous, devout Tevye in The Fiddler on the Roof.
Then, the staccato utterance of his speaking voice and the resonances of his baritone were self-confident, rich and full. Now, with the donning of his Marceau crumpled hat, this actor becomes a quiet, unassuming man, who is generous, kindly and practical. He cannot put his feelings into words but he finds both Clara and his newborn son irresistible. Richard moves with quiet stealth, lightly on his feet. Twinges of puzzlement occasionally cross his face but, once resolved, he will hold his course. What he says is expressed quietly and obliquely. His is the comedy of the very private life, where all problems can be resolved with "a nice cup of tea".
Then, as Dr Gary, or as the Durban-born mother-in-law, he becomes roughly down to earth, insensitive and exquisitely absurd. These successive cameos show Richard to be one of our cleverest comic actors as well as a master of pathos, with an unforgettable, scorching stage presence.
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