Went to Mosaic Theatre's production of Athol Fugard's 1961
play "Boodknot" about South Africa under apartheid. I am also pissed
at myself for leaving my program and ticket stub at the after show restaurant
and I blame my excellent company of friends, Gary and Mitchell, for distracting
me with our conversation and fellowship. A worthy reason to lose anything!
The play is an intense drama around the relationship of two
brothers with different fathers who've come to live together in a tin shack in
a black township near Port Elizabeth. They are quite different in the tone of
their skin color, one burnt umber and the other pinkish-tan. One can pass as
colored or white and one is destined to be black. The play explores their
disparate dreams for their futures, their connection and love of each other,
and the dehumanizing life for blacks under Aparthied's rigid racist rules.
The experience was my second at Atlas Performing Arts Center
and my first in the main theater venue, which was a revelation unto itself,
since I assumed the first production that I attended was in the main theater
space, but was not.
The action really centered on the two actors. Nathan Hinton
as Zachariah Peterson the darker and less focused on the future brother, and
Tom Story as Morris Peterson, the passably white brother. The power of the
play's writing came through the actor's performances, and yet I was not
completely satisfied with them. For one, having seen Tom Story now in 6 other
productions in the past year, all I could see in his portrayal of Morris was
Tom Story.
He seems to be everybody's darling in the DC theater community,
and he can do many things well. He can memorize complicated lines in a short
time. He can recite those lines in a theater setting with clarity and a range
of emotional passion. But what he can't seem to do is present a character that
doesn't remind one of Tom Story. I know this sounds harsh, and I don't mean for
it to be, but I'm the one forking over the cash to see the performance and when
it's compitent; I'll say so, and when it's transcendent; I'll gush over it. Tom
is a compitent actor.
His counter part in this production, Nathan Hinton, was far
more compelling to watch and provided a more empathetic character. For both of
the actors, certain aspects of their portrayals fell short. Most noteably their
South African accents. It didn't take long for Tom's version to digress into
something comically non-standard Elnglish with hints of everything from
Kiwi-English to Dutch English, but its inconsistency made it's origins
unintelligable, and Nathan moved into that lovely lylting non-descript
sub-Saharan central African English. The second act opened with two amazing
faux pas's. The word "Zebra" pronounced as "zeebra" and not
"zebrah" (short "e" like Debra). This was followed quickly
by the the letter of the alphabet "Z" itself pronounced
"Zee" and not "Zed". Even after only a month in South
Africa over 25 years ago, I could spot these errors in a heartbeat. And the
fact that I was so disengaged in the production to do so also speaks to the
overall level of failure to achieve true engagement.
Tom Story as Morris Peterson and Nathan Hinton as Zachariah Peterson |
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