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Auditioning Angels

REVIEWS OF AUDITIONING ANGELS IN CAPE TOWN — AUGUST 2003

Auditioning Angels a Candid Commentary on Society

– Jeremy Abbott, Cape Town Today, August 2003

In Auditioning Angels, his first play in 13 years, Pieter-Dirk Uys confronts one of the ugliest faces of South African society today: Grown men who rape young virgins in the belief that it will cure them of the HIV and AIDS virus.

But this is not the only problem Uys tackles. Auditioning Angels takes place in an understaffed hospital where nothing works properly, and almost nobody cares for the faceless, helpless masses. The play also draws attention to Cuban doctors serving in our hospitals, violence, government’s tardiness in providing antiretrovirals to the masses and the sexuality of our youth.

Although Auditioning Angels is peppered with Uys’s trademark acerbic wit, the play is by no means funny – the subject matter is far too serious. Central to the story is the Nathan family, not only traumatised by the rape of a young girl, but also dealing with decades of baggage as a split, dysfunctional family on the wrong side of the government during the 80’s.

At the helm of the family is patriarch Dr Gerald Nathan, played by Clive Scott. Scott delivers a stately performance as a longstanding member of the ANC who divorced his wife and spent years in exile in London with their daughter Gloria. He has returned to South Africa to write a book only to discover, much to his chagrin, that the incumbent leadership has forgotten all about him.

Jo da Silva delivers an excellent performance as Gloria Nathan de Villiers, an emotional, shell shocked woman who lost her husband in a car hijacking and cannot accept what has happened to her daughter, or deal with the conflict between her father and brother Matthew, played by Paul du Toit.

Du Toit is by far the most powerful onstage presence, playing an explosive angry white male who hates his father for leaving him, is convinced South Africa is going to the dogs and wants to immigrate with his family to Australia.

The rest of the cast is made up of Thoko Ntshinga who plays Gloria’s business partner Majuba Xhaba and Nandi Nyembe, who plays Nurse Tessie Bredenkamp.

Ntshinga’s character is a sassy, well educated businesswoman, often seen as a “coconut” by her own people, who went so far as to take classes to learn to speak English with an African accent.

Nyembe plays one of the true angels in the story, an anonymous hero with no means, other than an abundance of love and compassion which she selflessly gives to AIDS orphans. She even steals embargoed antiretroviral drugs to administer to her charges.

Auditioning Angels has a brilliant script with real, flawed characters that are able to grow as people. There is a very surprising and shocking twist in the story and a happy, perhaps unjustifiably so, ending.

Auditioning Angels is an uncompromising, emotionally powerful assault on issues that are threatening a generation of South Africans. It is a wake-up call to the powers that be.

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Take flight with Angels

– Daniel Dercksen, News24, 15 August 2003

Cape Town — Pieter-Dirk Uys's latest play, Auditioning Angels, opened at Theatre on the Bay in Cape Town on Thursday and proves that Uys is undoubtedly one of South Africa's greatest storytellers.

Auditioning Angels is set in one of the top hospitals in present day Gauteng — where the sick and dying are neglected and facelifts receive priority. Usually regarded as a place of healing and shelter, it is turned into a war zone where a family is forced to face a past that has caused them to drift apart.

Bombarded by announcements in foreign languages, a television that blasts them with dreadful soapies, shoddy surrounding, dying babies, and the occasional proclamation of the latest winning lotto numbers, their future is as uncertain as the past that haunts them.

The play focuses on a tragedy that brings the family together; the rape of an eight-year-old girl. While the influential mother (Jo Da Silva) awaits the outcome of tests being done (her daughter was supposedly brutalised by a man who has Aids), she is comforted by her personal assistant and confidant (Thoko Ntshinga), confronted by her overbearing brother (Paul du Toit), and consoled by her father (Clive Scott).

They are all in the hands of Nurse Tessie (Nandi Nyembe) who is the angel that guides them through the confrontations that blinds them.

A magnificent ensemble

It is a magnificent ensemble that is fully immersed in Uys's wonderfully touching creation, and delicately shaped by director Blaise Koch.

Da Silva is perfect as the cold and calculated sufferer, giving the character a gentle edge and fragility. As the sometimes imposing and hateful brother, Du Toit brilliantly gives the brute a tenderness that is touching and endearing.

Ntshinga delivers a solid performance as the voice of the past, and Nyembe shines with her excellent portrayal of the caring nurse. Rounding off the cast is Scott, who surprises with the sincerity he injects into a character that crawls under your skin.

The search for truth

Auditioning Angels deals with loss. The affect of its consequences and the power of its healing. It deals with losing faith, breaking the connection that could be the only way for the characters to survive.

The characters are trapped inside their insecurities; their isolation removes them from their need to be comforted and to be forgiven for the mistakes that makes them human. They have a desperate outcry that is silent and deserves to be heard. Their flawed humanity is the heartbeat of the play; their search for truth and understanding captivates and intrigues.

They are desperately searching for answers and are forced to face circumstances. The outside world becomes a dangerous place; the unfamiliar becomes familiar and the unknown becomes a new home for old grievances.

An effective devise in the play is objects that become characters: the broken television and laptop computers serve as a reminder of the outside world; representing our conscience, a nagging truth that is difficult to ignore and impossible to live without.

The computers represent the corporate giants that control the fate of the less fortunate, and the television symbolises the constructed reality that manipulates and dictates. The toys are reminiscent of the faceless children that become statistics in the battle between politicians and doctors.

Uys reminds his audience that we all need a tragic event to bring closure. Tragedy becomes an extravagant luxury during a time where there seems to be no hope; a reminder of who we really are, how fragile we are and how important those who are close to us are.

He also reminds us that in our struggle to reconcile, we seem to forget that we were all children once (and still are deep down inside), and that it is the child within us that will prevent fairytales from turning into nightmares.

During a time of reconciliation, infliction, and reflection, Uys allows us to look at the realities we try to ignore, and lies we tend to cling on to.

It is not an easy journey, but never painful, occasionally dipped in razor-sharp wit.

Uys brilliantly captures humanity

Once again, we are laughing at our own little hideous insecurities. The laughter triggers an awareness of how easy it is to overcome tragic situations. There is a wonderful moment in the play when brother and sister share Gummy Bears; for once — and for the first time — they smile at each other in silence, fondly remembering happier childhood memories.

Uys brilliantly captures a human truth: despite our differences, there are moments that make us forget the worst and remember what it is like to smile.

We are all "auditioning angels"; there is hope in our struggle to embrace our humanity and overcome the weaknesses that imprison us.

Auditioning Angels gives fear a face, a face that we can only see once we turn our eyes away from the obvious and probe the reality of whom we are.

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