The Faustian bargain, a tale for all times
Review: Faustus in Africa! Photographs by Fiona MacPherson
Faustus is a universal human story, whether it be told as an operatic version of its ancient self or – as at the Baxter Theatre until March 22 – a multi-dimensional rendering set in colonial Africa and brought to life with puppets and animation. Perhaps it will be equally compelling in a future telling, where a super-weird tech tycoon plays Mephistopheles to a reality TV host-turned-American president of a Faustus. That would work too.
Faustus in Africa!, directed by William Kentridge and Lara Foot, and featuring puppetry from Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of the Handspring Puppet Company, is especially compelling because of the extraordinary theatre craft. The puppets and the projected animations give the viewer so many amusing and interesting places to rest. A brilliant production allows the viewer to enjoy this rather uncomfortable allegory of the all-too-familiar shitshow of power and greed, like the one that is turning the world on its head right now.
A re-working of their multi-award-winning 1995 production, this show is also a reminder of how much easier it is to examine the familiar ‘tale without redemption’ when it is portrayed as unfolding in a different time, to another people, abroad and away. A classic and very compelling ‘Othering’ of our human weakness.
This reimagining of the classic tale of Faustus invokes the spectre of the Scramble for Africa in the late 1800s and early 1900s, while bringing to mind the current geopolitical mess that is spilling over from the northern hemisphere. Serendipity adds a little extra magic.
It is the darkest of tales; it is also achingly familiar. Whatever your defining story or legend, to be human is to be in conversation with your own ‘devil’: greedy, power hungry, never satisfied. The worst of the chaos might be happening ‘over there’, but we, too, are accepting deals that will leave us in a purgatory of debt, environmental ruin, spiritual disillusionment, you name it.
What this African retelling of Faustus does so masterfully is to remind us of the tale’s universality. The bargain may change in form, the names of the players may differ, but the fundamental dynamics remain: the lure of power, the cost of ambition, and the reckoning that must follow.
If the theatrical concept is extraordinary and the show very gripping, this blend of theatre, puppetry, poetry and music can be difficult to follow at times. Just like life. The show is pulled together very expertly by a veritable galaxy of South African talent, including Atandwa Kani, Jennifer Steyn and Wessel Pretorius alongside puppeteers Asanda Rilityana, Buhle Thembisile, Eben Genis and Mongi Mthombeni. A stand-out for us on the night was Jennifer Steyn in various roles, sometimes played concurrently, all of them brilliantly rendered. She is adorable in all the roles, from the aristocrat to the hyena.
Don’t try too hard to understand it all. Enjoy the show and drink your wine. The message will land.