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Barbara Loots
Land justice and affordable housing investigated by Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni, in NEIGHBOURHOOD, currently onstage at the Baxter Theatre until 24 August 2024.
I’ve been struggling to write this review because it’s difficult to find the well-measured words to critique a theatre piece that tells you it’s important even before you’ve taken your seat. In doing so, it sets a trap many social commentary theatre productions employ these days, because if you don’t like it, it’s so easy to call the reviewer out as someone against an important issue instead of just someone wishing the issue was conceptualised differently from a theatrical perspective. My attempt with this review is to do the latter, well-knowing that a bombardment of the former may follow regardless. With that said, let me cautiously take a step forward in navigating this field of booby traps.
As a lawyer by profession (mainly working in the area of constitutional law, with a passion for human rights protection) one thing that I’ve learnt when trying to convince someone of an opinion is if you walk into the engagement angry or emotional or even self-righteous, you’ve most likely already lost the argument before saying much. Angrily shouting at someone you are trying to convince of your point of view rarely works. However, talking to someone, instead of at them, in a well-meaning manner often does the trick of making them at least listen to your side of the story.
Sitting down to watch NEIGHBOURHOOD, I unfortunately felt that shouting-at tactic being employed and dressed up as theatricality. Because of that, the impact of what I hoped was a primarily human-interest driven story (one that would take my heart on a journey of care by means of character development) was lost and a very important argument along with it. Because of the manipulative ploy used in the production, I could not really engage in the human-interest stories that should fuel the issue being explored.
But that perhaps is the problem too: the issue was placed above all else and before the story to be told. This is theatre after all, storytelling is what we yearn for, and good storytelling is what we celebrate. You can very effectively use storytelling as social commentary, but then you must have the foresight not to preach at your audience or attempt to manipulate them into feeling guilt rather than care or empathy.
The moment you walk into the Baxter Studio theatre space for NEIGHBOURHOOD, there is already a recording talking about the meaning of home. That in itself is not too manipulative, but viewed together with the tone and approach the play takes throughout, collectively it reads as superficial politicking or lecturing rather than moving storytelling.
Next follows the opening scene with a stereotypical politician shouting at an audience within a small intimate space (shouting amplified by a mic). From there you are bombarded with a string of characters informed by even more stereotypes which throughout stifles any real sense of character development. You first meet the movers, shakers, and money-makers residing in the affluent fictional suburb of Everwood. Thereafter you get a glimpse of those workers who keep Everwood running, those residing in the fictional poorer township of Lindela, a forgotten corner where politicians move people out of sight of their property development investors.
The employ of stereotypes doesn’t really allow the audience the opportunity to invest emotionally in the characters as there is very little that makes them unique. Making the audience care about characters in your story is key to theatre in general and absolutely crucial to good social commentary theatre. If you skimp on that ingredient, you may be left with a well packaged production, but not one that will move your audience to any form of real action afterwards. At most you’ll get lip service and obligatory praise as the audience knows what is expected of them, lest they want to be labelled as uncaring or politically misaligned.
The staging of NEIGHBOURHOOD itself is also overly busy, constantly moving and changing, not allowing any character interaction the courtesy of a considered pause, which in turn could allow the audience and the emotional undertones to linger and breathe. Creating space for unease is not a bad thing; it gives the audience a moment to sit in the sadness that impacts a character’s progression. That sense of unease should be allowed to reverberate from characters living under the discriminatory practice of spatial apartheid. That’s the tool you use to make people truly feel, without needing to slap them in the face with issues. Make them feel: anger, sadness, despair. Make them feel, don’t tell them what to feel or even that they should feel anything. Invite your audience to feel something by giving them the opportunity to invest in the journey of your characters. When you do so, you automatically move issues into the centre of their own reality with just the subtle trick of storytelling. That impact lingers much longer than the few hours spent watching a play.
This general concern with the way NEIGHBOURHOOD has been conceptualised and staged is probably best illustrated by way of comparison (which is frowned upon in theatre circles, but I’ll take the hit as I think it’s the best way to communicate my point).
One the eve when NEIGHBOURHOOD officially opened at the intimate Baxter Studio space, a theatre classic was also running in the downstairs Flipside of the Baxter. That show was THE UGLY NOO NOO. That show incorporates physical theatre and storytelling, while also using humour (an element present in NEIGHBOURHOOD too) to great effect to take the audience on a journey informed by the idea fear: the type of fear that breaks down a sense of humanity, the type of fear abused by power-hungry people to make one group hate another and attack anyone who doesn’t look like them or fit with their ideals of right and proper. It is unquestionably a play that shows the audience how ugly the crime of apartheid is and highlighting the emotional and societal wounds that discriminatory abomination of misplaced ideals leave behind. THE UGLY NOO NOO communicates all this through clever, character driven storytelling that does not once shout (or have to shout) the real issue at its audience. The play is crafted in a way that you just simply know what real issue stands at the centre of the commentary through the emotion it evokes.
NEIGHBOURHOOD plays at the exact opposite. It doesn’t miss a beat to tell you in no uncertain terms exactly what the issue explored is. In fact, it stops short of pummelling you over the head with it.
For that reason NEIGHBOURHOOD in its current form feels like a missed opportunity. I say that knowing what Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni as a young playwright and director is capable of. She’s an extraordinary talent. I’ve eagerly been following her career, and to date have liked the way she uses theatre to unpack important conversations through character-driven plays.
However, NEIGHBOURHOOD left me feeling a bit disappointed, as I did not clearly hear that nuanced voice I associate with her work. As a commissioned piece of theatre, perhaps this is a situation where a young talent for a moment lost her unique voice in writing with the idea of meeting perceived expectation.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree with the underlying commentary of the play: Being poor should never be seen as a crime, and in our current societal structures it feels as if that is the heartbreaking reality of how politicians approach a socio-economic reality, rather than engaging honestly with affected groups and individuals. It almost feels as if they think being poor is contagious. In that lies the theatrical NEIGHBOURHOOD conundrum, as the play gets tangled up in that which it is trying to address: people being spoken at rather than being honestly heard and engaged with. NEIGHBOURHOOD has fallen victim to the political opinion ploys it seeks to address
It felt diluted in comparison to the clear human-interest voices I’ve come to associated with the characters usually crafted by Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni.
NEIGHBOURHOOD does have moments of humour and the storytelling does show promise. It should perhaps just be given time to breathe and be revisited after the hype of the importance of the play has settled. At that point it would be interesting to see this promising and very talented young theatre-maker go back to the script and do what she does so well, making people care about the characters she creates, influenced but not overshadowed by their circumstances in the process of storytelling.
There are many interesting characters that can take the story of NEIGHBOURHOOD forward, to truly give it wings. To name but one: The bright-eyed high-school student Petunia (insightfully portrayed by Tamzin Williams) who herself has not been untouched by sadness and loss in her short life. In the middle of the play, she reveals that she wants to become a lawyer, like the ones she’s seen on tv, the ones with a sense of celebrity and status. Then, towards the end of the play, she professes that because of all that’s happened to her community in Lindela and the manner in which the Everwood residents treated them as lesser, a problem to be removed, that she still wants to be a lawyer, but now rather one who truly helps people by standing up for the rights of the downtrodden in society. In that character lies a spark of what NEIGHBOURHOOD could be. I would have loved to have gone on the journey of NEIGHBOURHOOD as seen through the eyes of Petunia, to care for and experience her dreams and the impact of the people who cross her life path on those dreams. A human interest, character-centred approach of that nature would have had my heart strings in a tight grip, making me care even more for a character who has clearly piqued my interest already within the overall business of NEIGHBOURHOOD as it is currently playing. I suspect if Petunia’s character development was properly put in the spotlight it would have left my heart bruised and battered on the stage when I excited the theatre. That would have lingered so much longer than the barrage of stereotypes that flitted past in constant motion shouting at me, but none pausing long enough to invite me to get to know them. None stopping long enough to really make me feel.
But in this I know I’m in the minority and many will tell you NEIGHBOURHOOD is great theatre because it’s important theatre. I will never stand in the way of anyone going to see a play, even if that motivation is sheer importance, because bums on theatre seats are always a win: What ultimately saves society more often than not is a celebration of all things creative and art. We need this to keep our humanity intact and to survive the harshness of the everyday, a reality where creativity is more often than not squashed rather than celebrated. So, go see NEIGHBOURHOOD, for whatever reason you may choose, and let it impact you in one way or another.
NEIGHBOURHOOD stars the Baxter‘s Fires Burning Company made up of Awethu Hleli, Carlo Daniels, Lyle October, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe and Tamzin Williams, along with Carla Smith and Jock Kleynhans. All giving committed performances throughout.
You have until 24 August 2024 to go see NEIGHBOURHOOD at the Baxter Theatre (Studio). Tickets for NEIGHBOURHOOD can be bought online through Webtickets.
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