Summer had hit Windhoek like a hot slap through the face and a whole bunch of crazy characters were sweating away in the National Theatre while a Chet Baker back track blared in the background.
Like any cast with a week till opening night, the flood of first timers were perspiring about more than just the weather.
The story was that they had a novice script writer, greenhorn stage director, rookie music director and a colt lead actress. But that the assorted rabble of raw recruits was hell bent on making the kind of dazzling debut that would convert critics to effusing believers.
The first of the first timers was actress and dancer, Desiree Kahikopo.
She’d taken a wild girlish stab at penning a musical drama set in 1950s Windhoek and Walvis Bay and she’d blown a bureaucrat at the National Art Council’s hair so far back they’d fawned and funded her debut theatre script.
With the luck of beginners on her side Desiree had tried to catch some more by casting Colleen Tjikune who’d seen as many stages as she had fiftieth birthdays.
The girl was green. Grasshopper green. But she was a hell of a thing to look at and rumour had it her voice was made to match. The way Desiree figured it, Colleen could make good as this hapless girl named Georgina who’s kinda mired in the blues so moves to the big bad city to get shook and shot of them.
Francios Oliver was the man about managing her.
He’d signed on as musical director and he was overseeing the score of 1950s and 1960’s jazz covers by Billie Holiday, Etta James, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Randy Crawford in between breaking the news as a broadcast journalist.
He was also managing Lara-Lyn Ahrens who’d been such a belle on the boards she’d won Best Actress and Best Newcomer in some la di da theatre awards which made her a bit of a big deal.
Her claim to fame as a first timer? Singing on the NTN stage as Macy. Sure, she’d sang a sweet Lana Del Ray cover at Song Night a few months back but her role as the ‘Blue Diamond’ jazz club’s top banana meant she had to act, sing and paint a pretty picture while she was at it.
Mervin Claasen would be at it too.
He’d be singing and smirking as an arrogant jazz club owner named John who throws Georgina a bum deal and makes Macy crazy about being the club’s ace act. Mervin had acted before. Plenty. But this time he’d be singing too and trying to make it masculine. You know, like Hugh Jackman.
The veteran in all this?
Lila Swanepoel.
Lila had worked on big sets attached to big names like Nicholas Cage and Charlize Theron and she’d be in charge of transporting everyone to the 1950s as the production designer.
With everything she had under her belt, she was probably the most confident of the bunch. So much so that you could see her at Andy’s sipping on something with editor Haiko Boldt sometime in the middle of a scorching afternoon. Just like everything was cool and getting colder.
The last of the First Timers was Brumelda.
Brumelda English so thin and thoughtful, you’d miss her if you blinked.
She’d who won the same la di da theatre award as Lara-Lyn but she’d hung up her acting hat to whip the group of greenhorns into shape as assistant director.
That was the cast and the crew as they’d sold it. They’d been working hard and, with one week until opening night and only one show, they’d been doing their best to get the press interested.
Francios sold it to me like a door-to-door salesman minus the Bryllcreem and spit polished shoes. He spun it real nice as “an emotional story of pain, love, betrayal and beautiful music that takes you on a journey back into time when music told stories and spoke to one’s heart.”
He added the words “deceit,” “greed” and “raw reality” and slapped a 16 years and up age restriction on it citing vulgar language and scenes of harrowing emotional abuse and I put myself down for two tickets. Seeing as I know enough about that to be an expert.
Weighing it all up, I don’t know if this will be good. I know that a dancer is directing, a broadcast journalist is in charge of the music and a pretty young thing will be making her musical theatre debut. And I guess when everyone is so busy doing what they’re supposed to, doing something different is… something.
Maybe it won’t be much. But maybe there’s magic in being more than what everyone expects.
We’ll all find out next week.
‘A Lifetime of Blues’ will be staged at the National Theatre of Namibia on 11 October at 20h00. Doors open at 19h30. Tickets cost N$60 in advance and N$70 at the door. Tickets are available at Computicket at all Shoprite/Checkers stores. Genre: Musical Drama
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