IN my book creative insight, ability and correctly interpreting and understanding of a theatre script is one of the most basic prerequisites of a worthy theatre director, I have learned over the past forty years.

Unfortunately, this elementary and basic creative ability was little in evidence in this presentation of Athol Fugard's play, 'No Good Friday', staged last Friday at the National Theatre of Namibia. Instead of using artistic licence to freely change and/or adapt this particular script, the director opted to steadfastly stick to the written word as if a sacred scroll. This is what caused all the directorial problems.

The presentation of the work again came across as a too 'clean' academic journey into the sordid world of township crime in places such as Sophia Town, as if not to offend black audiences. Yes, I have read the script beforehand.

It is a generally known fact that Fugard, now in his seventies, is one of the world's most prolific and respected playwrights, but he is also known as a very word-rich writer, a characteristic espoused in most of his works.

'No Good Friday' was no exception, but offered many challenges to have streamlined this production. Undoubtedly the subject matter is still as relevant as all those years ago re-emphasising Fugard as the master writer of timeless plays he is.

I was privileged to have seen the first presentation of the play some 18 years ago by Aldo Behrens and I must say I didn't see or experience any innovative creative ideas from the director, save for a replacement of a mouth whistle with another music instrument and with the exception of a more elaborate décor set, placed so far behind on the stage that it really irritated me. During that first performance I vividly remember the set was shabbier, but more effective. It was abundantly clear that no amount of money was spared this time around for creating the set, nor to produce the play, something that could easily have impressed some audience members unaccustomed to attending theatre plays.

However, the directorial approach to the work in my humble view is that the presentation was too script-bound and it was dragging towards the end in a very repetitive mode.

A gross misjudgment of the work was the arrival of the innocent rural man looking for a job in the city, an age-old recipe for this kind of play in the same mode as F. A. Venter's classic Afrikaans novel, 'The Black Pilgrim'. That Behrens chose to make a comedy of this real life problem, rural versus urban, goes beyond my own directorial comprehension.

Dawid Nanub's interpretation and acting of the part was a parody of silliness without any depth, nor justification. This, to me, could have been the climax of the play, not the eminent death by Harry's audacious and brutal criminal action, exceptionally well portrayed by Vickson Hangula. His physical size did a lot of justice to the role. In fact, it was annoying to see the part of the rural man done so amateurishly.

To make things worse, a location name change and a character name to localise the play in some sort of weird way was also brought in to little effect. This also did injustice to an internationally acclaimed work of this magnitude. Fugard has always been an inspiration to a whole generation of South African playwrights and will rightfully be for ages to come. Fortunately, Fugard's legacy includes so many brilliant works to choose from that the world will always appreciate and respect, if done with understanding of the subject matter.

Norman Job, as the crime boss, and David Ndjavera, as Guy the musician, delivered their usual flair and dosage of outstanding and excellent stage acting ability. Elize de Wee came across as a rather very subdued Rebecca, whereas Joseph Molapong, as the main protagonist periodically delivered above average acting as the influential intellectual among the ordinary township folks. Other characters such as the politician, (if it had to be localised), this was an opportunity for the director to have poked fun at Namibian politicians). I really expected much more from this character, but unfortunately the politician, the drunk, the pastor and the blind man were all mere figures, never really rising to the challenges of their parts.

I am anxiously looking forward to the next and hopefully more innovative play presentation of the NTN's newly announced "Premiere Play Programme" for 2009.