Aretired academic, a bum, a street musician, a painter and a crippled singer all sit on or around a blue bench at The Mole in Swakopmund.
The academic thinks about things that need thinking about. The bum’s rags hide a forgotten past and an inquiring mind and the painter paints seagulls and mosquitoes while his crippled companion hums well-known melodies as a mandolin player underscores the action.
The quietest among them is the blue bench.
A place for philosophical discussions as well as religious and evolutionary musings, the bench is most regularly visited by a wizened professor who has bird watched and raged against mosquitoes in peace until the day he is joined by the bum whose dirty exterior hides a spit polished mind.
Starring theatre veterans Aldo Behrens and David Ndjavera, ‘Variations on a Blue Bench’ is a play written by Behrens, directed by Joseph Keamogetsi Molapong and set to be a cerebral situation at the National Theatre of Namibia’s (NTN) backstage next week.
Essentially, the presentation of ruminations as expounded by two characters in the guise of the time-honoured odd couple, ‘Variations on a Blue Bench’ is touted as the kind of play that you listen to while trying to understand the philosophies and beliefs that shaped two wildly different lives serendipitously juxtaposed.
These lives are the life of a white man who goes home to a house and family after a long career and a black man who has lost his home and his family and is still scarred by the war.
“This play is about not judging a book by its cover. It’s about what society assumes about people based on their race and economic situation and the need to look beyond the superficial,” says Molapong.
“It is about discovering oneself and seeing life through different eyes because when two intelligent, though remarkably different people meet, something special comes forth.”
Certainly set to be special what with theatre behemoths like Behrens, Ndjavera and Molapong at the helm, Molapong is currently rising to the challenge of making two blokes on a bench seem interesting in terms of staging.
“There won’t be any dancing or jumping around. These are two old guys,” laughs Molapong. “The action is in the dialogue and my job is essentially to make the moments work.”
With regard to who should come and see this play, Molapong says it is for everyone, though some people in particular may find it edifying.
“This play will be good for churchgoers, politicians and non-church goers,” says Molapong mischievously before adding that the play is suitable for anyone interested in good, intimate theatre.
The play also stars Heiner Kittel as the street painter, Morne Mouers as the crippled singer and Christopher West as the street musician.
Catch ‘Variations on a Blue Bench’ next week to mull over things as random as hopping mossies and seagulls without calves interspersed between brain bending metaphysical bouts about religion, evolution, the ‘selfish gene’ creativity… and begging.
‘Variations on a Blue Bench’ will be staged on 15 and 16 April at the NTN Backstage. The show starts at 20h00. Tickets are available at Computicket and cost N$50. The show is a collaboration between the National Theatre of Namibia and the Bank Windhoek Arts Festival.
– @marth__vader on Twitter
