Mbulelo Grootboom and Kai Luke Brummer show two sides of the same "face" in a play that drips with dark humour. Mbulelo Grootboom and Kai Luke Brummer show two sides of the same "face" in a play that drips with dark humour.
It’s been three years since we saw Mbulelo Grootboom on stage in the city. That was at the Fugard, when he appeared in Athol Fugard’s Playland.
In the interim, he has become a TV star and is currently appearing in four shows on the small box. He has been drawn to the stage by a role in Richard Kaplan’s Selwyn & Gabriel, which opened on Monday at Alexander Upstairs.
Grootboom shares the stage with Kai Luke Brummer. Direction is by Matthew Kalil. Kaplan’s first play, The Finkelsteins are Coming to Dinner, was staged last year - to acclaim and awards.
As to returning to the stage to perform at the Alexander Upstairs, Grootboom said: “Theatre is my first love and I always go back to it. For me, it is like going back home.
“I also must say that the play (Selwyn & Gabriel) is great and a necessary text - the character of Gabriel is challenging, which is what every artist wants.”
Challenging is an apt description. In Selwyn & Gabriel, we watch as Selwyn, a troubled young white man, is confronted by the intrusion of Gabriel, an older black man, into his home in the middle of night. Under Gabriel’s inquisition Selwyn must confront himself and what it means to be alive in this world.
Selwyn is shocked and jolted out of his inertia by Gabriel, who is there to force him to “assess and reflect”. It is difficult to write about this play without plot spoiling. The joy of watching is the way Kaplan plays with language, imagery, religious and cultural references.
As with the Finkelsteins, the text is dripping with dark humour - much of it pivots around the construct that Gabriel is Xhosa and Selwyn is Jewish (“but you don’t look Jewish”).
However, as Kaplan said, he could have ditched the older black man interacting with younger white man premise and presented them as individuals from other cultural/social/religious frameworks.
“Everything is personal,” Gabriel tells Selwyn. But the mastery in the writing is that Kaplan has not made it an issue-driven play but has woven the issues into the fabric of the script. Brummer graduated from UCT last year and this is his first year on the boards as a professional. His skittish Selwyn (you would be jittery if you had an intruder in the house) is juxtaposed with the calm, urbane, sophisticated, measured Gabriel.
It is a treat to see Grootboom back in the theatre. He is at times menacing. Gabriel is interrogator, messenger, change agent. No matter who Gabriel may or may not be, Grootboom has infused him with humanity - and caring.
Kalil in the director’s seat has beautifully plotted the interaction between the two men - who are in a sense two faces of one picture. It is Kalil’s first shot at directing for stage.
This is a poignant, tender piece of theatre - wryly observed, skilfully crafted, funny and affirming. It’s an appeal to take stock of our lives and face the night terrors that keep us awake.
* Selwyn & Gabriel is on until September 9 at Alexander Upstairs (76 Strand Street), at 7pm and there are two 4pm performances on September 8 and 9. Tickets: R150/R140 for the 7pm shows and R130/R120 for the 4pm shows. The cheaper price applies when booking online: shows.alexanderbar.co.za