Rudd’s Retrospect Revives the Thrill of Theatre

It’s a rare thing to have the kind of career that sees the likes of Big Ben, Michelle McLean, Patricia Ochurus, Sharon van Rooi, Esther Fellner, Tanya Terblanche and Gretel Coetzee take the stage to honour your work, but theatre doyenne Sandy Rudd is living the dream.

At last week Friday’s red-carpet gala event for ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’, a retrospective celebrating Rudd’s forty years in theatre, the crowd that gathers at the National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) is a crush of collaborators, patrons, enthusiasts, friends and fans.

The show is running almost an hour late. Complimentary champagne flows in the courtyard between the theatre and the National Art Gallery of Namibia where a poster exhibition of Rudd’s plays, mainly designed by Andrew Weir, is on display.

A newly minted wall of lifetime achievement, remembrance and fame honours theatre legends such as Rudd, Frederick B Philander, David Ndjavera, Stanley van Wyk, John Pindalo, Aldo Behrens, Philippe Talavera, Hans Struppies Reinhardt, Banana Shekupe as well as Laurinda Olivier-Sampson. People pause to pay their respects.

Eventually, the doors open, the crowd hurries in and the show gets on the two-hour road. Narrated by technical director Ernst Steynberg, who offers insights into Rudd’s theatrical journey throughout, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ is a dynamic live archive that recreates some of Rudd’s most exciting productions.

In a show that offers non-stop delight, Roya Diehl reprises her teenage role as Audrey from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and earns one of the night’s greatest compliments, a young girl seated behind me whispering: “She sings just like a Disney princess.”

Consummate performer Odile Gertze takes on the dramatic, some cabaret and the absurd as she makes light work of ‘Lysistrata’, ‘Moulin Rouge’ and ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare’. As for Lize Ehlers, she is undoubtedly one of the night’s stars. Returning as the poignant Meisie from ‘Meisie van Mariental’ and soaring in vocal performances from the show’s various musicals, Ehlers effortlessly commands the stage.

Featuring echoes of independence celebrations, outstanding opera by Coetzee, deaf comedy with Chicken and Sabino, and multimedia theatre honouring the life and legend of Jackson Kaujeua, the diversity of Rudd’s oeuvre is evident in the mix of people and productions that have coloured her life’s work.

For those attending, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ is a walk down memory lane and a glimpse of the future.

Beaming from a screen, McLean, a former Miss Universe, hands the torch to a new set of queens, many of them from Drag Night Namibia. Vamping as ‘The Jungle Book’s’ vultures and sashaying as the three little maids from ‘Hot Mikado’, the ensemble is deftly choreographed by Haymich Olivier and dramatically dressed by Hafeni Frans.

Though the first half is all theatre, the show’s second half – under way after an interval of theatre sports by Terblanche, Junelle Stroh and Luktos Shikongo – is dedicated to honouring Namibian theatre legends.

Featuring a tribute to Philander by actor Norman Job, an ‘in-memoriam’ segment with a spirited solo by Fellner as well as a vote of thanks to the partners who made the production possible, the second half of ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’’ sees Rudd celebrate her 70th birthday by feting those who’ve walked alongside her.

With the crowd murmuring appreciatively and in memory of artists such as Boetietjie Kavandje, Cynthia Schimming, Jane Katjavivi, Jacus Krige, Dawn Spieker, Sally Kauluma and Betty Matthews, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ speaks to the collaborative nature of theatre, its humanistic community-building and to Rudd’s generousity of spirit.

Though Rudd takes the stage to honour and thank others including her dear family, mostly she shies away in the wings or in the audience, compulsively twirling a piece of her signature white hair as she smiles, blushes or whoops with excitement.

More than just a moment to honour Rudd, the theatre star makes it a moment to honour all who have journeyed beside her as cherished friends, generous collaborators and esteemed peers.

As the sector, chilled by the effects of the pandemic, struggles to regain even a semblance of its former glory, ‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ is a night that Namibian theatre needs.

For many artists, it is a return to the theatre, a sprawling collaboration with some of the country’s most formidable talents, both veteran and as relatively new as the sparkling Ndayola Ulenga, game Verena Wüstkamp and the budding Othello Joseph.

The night is long. The production could be a tad tighter and one may welcome more of a cohesive narrative thread, but nobody really minds.

‘Forty Years of Fabulous’ returns something to us. It revives the thrill of theatre through a selection of exuberant, dramatic and musical performances and, for a moment, it lifts the fog that seems to have settled on our stages.

“I’m so lucky. I’ve been able to have the full spectrum of a theatrical career in Namibia,” says Rudd.

“I’m just so happy to be with my darlings, my family, my tribe. That’s my biggest affirming accolade, that people still trust me enough to pitch up again.”

Towards the end of the evening, dramaturge Ndinomholo Ndilula recites a poem that Rudd says speaks to her hopes for the production, ‘Continue’ by Maya Angelou.

“That, to me, is what I wanted this production to be,” says Rudd. “My baton handing over is for Namibian theatre to continue.”

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