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SCENE IT: BITTER WINTER, an honest, heart-breaking reflection on lives offered for the love of the stage
- Barbara Loots
- Jun 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 4
Barbara Loots
The new play by Paul Slabolepzy, BITTER WINTER, presented by Weslee Lauder and The Baxter is on stage atthe Baxter’s Studio until 14 June 2025. It is a moving, thought-provoking reflection on the entertainment industry: the dream it promises and the reality it eventually grants to those who dedicate their lives to it.
BITTER WINTER by Paul Slabolepzy is one of those plays that catches you off guard. You read the blurb and think “this seems nice, but not groundbreaking”. Then you go see it and realise how moving and poignant this every-day-man story of identity struggles truly is.
The stage is sparsely dressed with a few office style visitor’s chairs and a sad coffee table that falsely hints at any form of warm liquid respite against the nip of a winter’s day. The set design by Frankie van Straten gives you the instant feel of a dreary room where dreams go to die. The only flicker of personality is found in the black and white (slightly faded) photos of Leleti Khumalo, Sharleen Surtie-Richards, John Kani and Bill Flynn scattered across the otherwise dull walls.
And so, the audience is invited into a call-back waiting room; the setting which would be familiar to many an actor who have made dealing with rejection part of their everyday life. This is the setting where we meet theatre stalwart Jean-Louis Lourens (Andre Odendaal), rising film star Prosper Mangane (Oarabile Ditsele) and casting agent Felecia Willemse (Chantal Stanfield).
Jean-Louis is there for a call-back to play a supporting role in a Western film, Six Guns at Sesriem, to be directed by a hot-shot American director. He needs this casting. He meets Prosper who is rather more secure in his casting status in this film. They initially annoy each other (and you as audience member) as they appear to be all ego to various degrees. You soon realise both have protective walls up (most likely because of the constant fear of rejection and failure) and it is these walls that initially push you away. Their personality clash eventually forms the basis of an unlikely friendship, with Shakespeare as the matchmaker. Gradually, as their lives and friendship are revealed you find yourself heartbroken for them, and that distress reflects in the emotional turmoil that Felecia deals with: She just wants the best for both of them, but (as is the norm in the industry) is forced to give expression to the whims and demands of a higher paid power.
The personal journey of these characters are beautifully reflected in the lighting design by Oliver Hauser, eventually catching you off guard as you realise that the sun has set on this drama and you are left with a lingering worry for the well-being of all these characters… You walk out simply hoping that they will be okay.
BITTER WINTER is a nod to the idea that the young don’t appreciate the lessons of the legends who invite them to sit at their feet so they can relay their learnings, until they themselves reach that age where their teachings are too easily dismissed. Though this may be the case, it also offers up the converse that perhaps the young have insights that the legends may need to stay relevant.
Slapolepzy takes this overlapping sentiment and roots it in the entertainment industry where many performers have one foot on the theatre stage (because of pure love for the craft) and another foot in front of the camera (as bills still got to be paid). It is also greatly inspired by Shakespeare’s relevance still today (even though many don’t even realise they draw on the Bard’s words on a daily basis)… because, "now is the winter of our discontent".
With this two-sided perspective of the same industry, Slabolepzy’s title BITTER WINTER very smartly reads the same in Afrikaans and English too, easily crossing language boundaries as the two characters at the centre of the play find an overlapping understanding and empathy for the life-paths that led them each to that moment in the casting agency waiting room. Though each has their own unique, and rather heartbreaking backstory –each having overcome their own struggles in life— they find themselves to be the unlikeliest of kindred spirits in their love for storytelling and their pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps survival instincts.
Directed by Lesedi Job, BITTER WINTER is not overtly preachy, though if you have any type of footing in the theatre industry, the cruel mistress we all love, you will be tuned into the tone of the play from the start. This may actually amp up the heartbreak you carry away with you.
As the play lingered in my thoughts afterwards, two quotes kept popping into my head: The start of the play reminded me of a Terrence Mann saying, “Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good”, while by the end of the play it had a touch of Julie Andrew’s sentiment that “The arts make a bridge across this world in ways that nothing else can”.
BITTER WINTER is a touching play about a shared human experience –Jean-Louis and Prosper meeting each other halfway in reflecting on their struggles and dreams. It hits hard in its quietness.
You have until 14 June 2025 to catch BITTER WINTER at the Baxter Theatre. Tickets (ranging between R180 and R200) can be booked online through Webtickets. The show is 80 minutes in duration with no interval and has a suggested Age Restriction of PG10.