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A Grahamstown ReviewEugéne AshtonLiving in Strange Lands Amateur productions, I find, are more often than not disappointing— more so one-man shows — and at the best of times should be avoided. Living in Strange Lands, which ran at the Moon Box in Pretoria before the festival, breaks the often too familiar mould of “amateur” and “boring”. Krueger creates a captivating script that is executed with precision on stage by Renos Spanoudes, who looks uncannily similar to Tsafendas. The stage is used as the cell where Tsafendas spent almost thirty years of his life. Spanoudes, who is now working on a role in Isidingo, captures the tormented and tortured soul of Tsafendas, moving from the present to the past with fluency and not interrupting the pace of the script. He brings to the script the character’s bizarre conflicts — his confusion with colour and race policy, his brilliance in language, his desperation in love, his wish for “clean” tea. (The guards in Pretoria Central Prison would urinate in his tea.) I was moved by the honesty and intense sincerity of the script, the use of period language and at times the use of verbatim quotes from interviews conducted with Tsafendas. Spanoudes is a perfect casting, moulded for the part and able to morph into the six-year-old screaming boy, triumphant hero, and confused inmate. The most striking aspect of the script is the historical accuracy. Krueger lets nothing slip and opens the life of a tragic hero to all — even those who are unfamiliar with the history. The use of slides on the backdrop creates a context for the action and the progression to the actual stabbing, once again a fluent mechanism employed with exactitude. This is no amateur show — it’s an emotional and intellectual masterpiece that moves with utter precision into the mindset of a man and the painful reality of his time, answering a crucial question: Why did he do it? For more information please contact Anton Krueger on 082 504 6659. |
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