'FOR BEGINNERS': Local stage personality Marion Holm has been seen on television in programmes such as Die Casper Rasper Show and Vlug na Egipte. Last year she also gave a wonderful performance in Ben Heyns' kykNET Silwerskermfees short film, Totsiens, Pa (Goodbye, Dad). Photo: SIMON DEINER 'FOR BEGINNERS': Local stage personality Marion Holm has been seen on television in programmes such as Die Casper Rasper Show and Vlug na Egipte. Last year she also gave a wonderful performance in Ben Heyns' kykNET Silwerskermfees short film, Totsiens, Pa (Goodbye, Dad). Photo: SIMON DEINER
MARION HOLM VIR BEGINNERS. Directed by Chris Vorster, with Marion Holm. At the Theatre on the Bay, Tuesday to Friday at 8pm, and Saturday at 5pm and 8pm. STEYN DU TOIT reviews.
THE first thing you’ll notice is her eyes. Penetrating, bright and full of life; Marion Holm’s two striking globular organs of sight are further rounded off by a pair of equally impressive eyebrows.
Everything else that follows – from the stories to the acrobatics to the plastic pot plant on stage – positively overwhelms the viewer’s senses in a similar way. It’s like the 1994 movie Speed all over again, but with Maid Marion this time driving the bus instead of a 30-year-old Sandra Bullock.
And, instead of Keanu Reeves, she’s brought her whole family along for the out of control ride that is Marion Holm vir Beginners ( Marion Holm for beginners ). For best results I suggest you don’t buckle up for this one. Open all the windows too.
Directed by Chris Vorster, and following a decade’s worth of successful one-person productions under the Holm banner ( Sussie, if your memory stretches back that far) at local arts festivals, this is the first time that this popular franchise has been given a full on theatre run. It arrives in Cape Town after debuting at Pieter Toerien’s Montecasino theatre in Johannesburg last month.
Produced by Kosie’s House of Theatre ( Cheaper Than Roses, Twee Vir Die Prys Van Een), as the title suggests, Marion Holm vir Beginners is aimed at introducing the Holm brand to a wider audience. The material performed, however, is completely new and will therefore appeal to both fans and newbies to Vorster and Holm’s humorous writing.
Stepping onto stage dressed in a toga and graduation cap, and with a bamboo cane swinging wildly above her head, the show begins with Holm schooling the audience on the various members of her immediate family. Funny from the get-go, be assured there’s no need for taking notes, or to highlight anything in your textbooks.
A reticent father, a salt of the earth Namaqualand mother and two very different sisters; by the end of this two-act show you will know this family much better than you’d originally think possible when seeing their names hastily scribbled on a blackboard at the start.
Similarly, everything else performed over the course of the show was either inspired by them, by Holm’s friends, or by the real-life adventures this multiple kykNET Fiësta Theatre award-nominee continually seems to be getting herself into. Oh, and Carl Jung. Don’t forget Carl Jung.
If she’s not having her breasts flattened “like cheese and tomato toasties” during her annual mammogram exam, or going for limo rides in Kraaifontein, then she’s getting lost somewhere on the Orange River.
Likewise, if you don’t find her burying the bodies of seafood casseroles she and Nataniël murdered in their kitchen, or getting seasick on a vulgarity known as The Sea Princess, then you can bet she’s online busy getting ripped off by one dodgy travel deal after the other, as we speak.
Performed by way of mime, sketch humour and stand-up comedy, the strongest element of this or (any other Holm) production, however, is her ability to make the viewer relate to her life and characters on a level deeper than just the surface.
A seasoned local stage personality who can be seen on television frequently, thanks to programmes such as Die Casper Rasper Show and Vlug na Egipte, last year also saw Holm give a wonderful performance as one of four sisters reuniting around their father’s deathbed in Ben Heyns’ kykNET Silwerskermfees short film, Totsiens, Pa(Goodbye, dad).
If your mother tongue or home language is Afrikaans, then chances are good that you won’t just recognise the kind of characters she portrays in Marion Holm vir Beginners, but physically recognise them in those closest to you as well. This makes for surprising emotional moments during the piece’s more serious segments.
But ultimately it’s more about the ups than it is about the downs here, with the production recommended for those looking to enjoy an evening of Afrikaans storytelling and comedy free from beginner’s luck.
Holm’s Cape Town visit is brief and ends this Saturday already. A performer able to tug at your heartstrings, tickle your funny bone and stay around to do shots with you at the bar afterwards all at the same time, she makes for great company.
l Tickets are R100 – R170, 0861 915 8000.