It’s doubtful whether South Africa will be overjoyed with this clunky piece of work as an anniversary present to celebrate 25 years since the first democratic election.
Legendary South African actor John Kani stars in his own two-hander alongside South African-born Antony Sher, but the sad news about this co-production with Cape Town’s Fugard Theatre is that it’s a bit of plod and something of a box-tick of elements of recent South African history.
Sher is Jack Morris, a famous and irascible actor with terminal liver cancer who is, nonetheless, preparing to play King Lear. The parallels between Lear’s and Jack’s declines are not hard to miss. Kani is Lunga Kunene, Jack’s new live-in nurse, whom Jack at first tries to house in the “maid’s room”. This is one of many instances of the script flagging up something potentially profound and combustible, only to dismiss it within a couple of lines.
The pair progresses along the predictable tracks of any odd couple, and Janice Honeyman’s production contains a dubious amount of declaiming to the gallery en route. Morris and Kunene are, of course, both products of their respective backgrounds: the former of decades of white supremacy (he is very fond of the phrase “you people”), the latter of the struggle under the repressive horrors of apartheid.
Yet there’s nothing surprising in their sketchily drawn backstories, even though Sher manages to inject some doses of cynical humour. Such a landmark year in South Africa merits something more forensic than this.
Until April 23 (017839 331111, rsc.org.uk)
