Hans Pienaar disappears in a cloud of Cohiba

Zani Botes

The play Ching Chong Che by Hans Pienaar starring the insightful Ron Smerzcak and directed by Karoly Pinter, gives a fresh perspective on the disillusioned revolutionary, Che Guevara. This work is based on Guevara’s activities in Africa and was recently published in a book with the same title.

The honesty of Che Guevara’s Congo diaries, in which he wrote candidly about the failure of his most ambitious campaign - something soldiers and politicians don’t usually do.

2. You wrote the book Ching Chong Che after the script. In a unique merging of genres the book contains the text of the play as well as a memoir of your visits to the Congo last year. What made you decide to compile everything into book form?

The memoir came after I had written the first draft of the play and then visited the Congo. It took certain themes in the subtext of the play further, especially that of control of the military and the freedom fighter cult, and tried to introduce new ways of looking at the Great Lakes holocaust. Theatre is about putting opposing voices on stage, and journalism is about travelling to a scene to get voices speaking from new angles about events happening there. Che’s Congo writings are far more important than is generally believed, and I hope the play in published form will help the memoir lead to a greater focus on them.

3. What do you think of Ron Smerczak’s performance as Che Guevara?

Absolutely brilliant, done with hard work and dedication, and overcoming huge obstacles. It is a completely new version of Che, who would have been fascinated himself by it.

4. What do you think of Ching Chong Che director Karoly Pinter’s interpretation on the piece?

I needed someone to take some risks with the play, and Pinter did so, being a child of the Hungarian uprising. I was still holding back in certain parts, afraid to make Che sin too much, but Karoly helped me make the jump. He and Ron also made fundamental additions, which I am happy to endorse, as I have come to respect their artistic vision.

5. Is there a specific message you want the audience to be left with?

Aluta continua, but in a very different way.

6. How was the piece received by audiences at the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees?

Mostly with shock. Some found it overwhelming, others said they had a lot to think about. A young musician told us she suddenly felt there was something terribly wrong with the world - which made us feel we were getting somewhere.

7. Where will Ching Chong Che be performed in the following months?

We are trying to get a production going in Johannesburg, if we can get the money. We would like to try Windhoek and we are also aiming at Cape Town.

8. What is your prediction for the future of theatre in South Africa?

It has a great future. There are untold numbers of stories that will find their medium sooner or later, and there is great talent, especially among young black people. But hunger, corruption and fear of doing the unthinkable, like turning icons into ogres, could prevent this future from arriving.

9. If you could change one thing about South African theatre, what would it be?

Get individuals and individual companies to sponsor individual works instead of playing it safe by giving their money to the liberation bureaucracies eating up all the region’s resources.

10. Tell us a bit more about your other published works.

Die Derde Oorlog teen Mapoch is an alternative history of apartheid, looking at all the secret societies and structures involved. Die Taal van Voëls (2002) is a collection of poetry, and in 1987 I published some short stories, Die Lewe Ondergronds. In 1986 the police confiscated most of the print run of Die Trojaanse Perd, about the Athlone uprising in 1985. In 1988 I edited Forces Favourites, a collection of stories against conscription.

11. What are you working on at the moment?

A second poetry collection, trying to get three novels published, short stories, a fourth novel, trying to get my two Afrikaans plays performed.

12. What is your favourite genre?

Photopoetry - taking art photographs on travels worldwide, for which I then write accompanying poems.

13. If you could have written any Oscar-winning script, which one would it be?

The Last Emperor by Bernardo Bertolucci.

14. Do you have any recurring dreams? What are they about?

Playing rugby as a flanker, taking gaps between locks and/or centres. Being a lieutenant in a continental war who gets mysterious assignments, like buying tables from Bulgarian terrorists.

Click on the book jacket to order your copy or to make a donation!

Ching Chong Che, by Hans Pienaar.

Lees Hans se poësie asook ’n artikel, ’n Nota oor selfpublikasie, op LitNet.

LitNet: 18 Mei 2004

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