Tracey Saunders
WHILE nature has been brightening up the West Coast landscape with wild flowers in recent days, a theatre company has been livening up the town of Darling with theatre inspired by a Dutch artist. The Matzer Theatre company, which hails from the town of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands, has returned with six of their plays themed on the seven deadly sins.
Madeline Matzer has spent the recent weeks in Darling sharing her theatrical experience with the youth of the area. The training culminated in a performance for the village yesterday.
It is not the company’s first visit to Cape Town. In 2009 they were invited by the Voorkamerfest to create a production specifically for the unique festival. They premièred Sweet Revenge that year and returned with five other productions. This year they will be performing all six productions at the festival. Capetonians who are unable to travel to Darling need not be disappointed, as they will be performing at other venues including The Rosebank Theatre and The Makukhanye Art Room in Khayelitsha.
Speaking about Darling Matzer says, “I can honestly say that Darling is an extraordinary small town, with a very positive vibe. This is partly the fruit of the labour of the Voorkamerfest, which over the last 10 years has managed to get many people in teh town involved in the festival.”
The impact that the festival has had on the community has not gone unnoticed and she observes that, “People have gotten to know each other better than is possible in many other places. You get to watch great performances in other people’s living rooms, which leads to people really meeting other people. In this way the festival, to me, represents the new South Africa.”
The intimacy of the festival is the perfect venue for their series of plays inspired by the visual artist known as Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch was born Jheronimus Aken in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the capital city of the province of North Brabant, Netherlands. The series of plays are based on his paintings. “We draw on the themes. The starting point for this series of productions is the theme of the seven deadly sins, which is very much present in Bosch’s works. Each of our ultimately seven productions represents a modern take on one of these universal sins.” she explains.
“Peter De Graef wrote the text of all of the six productions that we’ll perform in and around Cape Town. He writes the scripts based on the given theme and sometimes, as a matter of preparation and inspiration, he meets up with the actor who’ll perform the production. He then writes the script, which I rehearse with the actor.”
Matzer feels that “the Voorkamerfest truly is one of a kind”, and says that “the one thing that is slightly similar is an initiative called wijksafaris(neighborhood safari), initiated by Dutch actress Adelheid Roosen. People also visit other people’s houses and the safari is very much about connecting people, too.”
This year they will perform at the Vet and audiences will experience the international première of Pillow Talk, which deals with lust and is performed by Wendell Jaspers. Productions which have been performed at previous festivals will be included in the programme. Sweet Revenge is a tale of desire and betrayal, love and envy, revenge and reconciliation and is based on a traditional legend. Augustus, a tale of pride includes music and is brought to life by Lottie Hellingman.
A fable about greed is recounted in The Red Shoes. It is an adaptation of a Hans Christian Andersen fairytale. Here a limousine sweeps actress Hanna Jensen to a better, richer life, or does it?
Lazy explores the pitfalls of sloth through the story of a parent and is performed by Jur van der Lecq. The description of Punishment will resonate with many. “How does it feel if the punishment meted out does not fit the crime?” Exploring envy and set in spring against a background of daffodils a young woman, Vera, faces a dilemma.
The seventh play about gluttony will form part of the festivities in Hertogenbosch in 2016 when the city will commemorate the 500th anniversary of his death.
In the meanwhile the Matzer company will continue enjoying the mother city.
The actor and director says “I’m in love with Cape Town, a beautiful and vibrant city, with lots of things happening all the time.” With the Voorkamerfest just one of those many things I won’t argue with her.
Performances are at The Rosebank Theatre from Thursday to Sunday, Groote Post outside Darling on August 30, The Showroom Theatre in Prince Albert on September 1, The Makukhanye Arts Room in Khayelitsha on September 3 and The Voorkamerfest from September 4 to 6.
There will also be performances in Dutch at Huis der Nederlanden in Pinelands on September 2.
l www.matzer.org