Paul Slabolepszy makes a welcome return to the stage with Suddenly the Storm
|||Diane de Beer
For Paul Slabolepszy, his latest play, which premieres next month, is all about dates. He hasn’t written a new play for 18 years (not one that has been produced, anyway).
This one, which taps into the 40-year commemoration of June 16, will be playing on that night in The Market Theatre; it’s also celebrating 40 years and this is the first time in 16 years that director Bobby Heaney and his buddy Slab are back in the Barney Simon, as well as the first time in many years that the two have come together for a new Slab play.
“He’s my safety blanket, my parachute,” says Slab about his longtime friend and director. Heaney speaks his mind and Slab knows he will be honest. He has always been a playwright who’s not precious about words if it improves the work. And watching them at play, while it is difficult for actor Slab not to fiddle with Heaney’s direction with his personal vision in mind, he easily backs off.
Yet this is a democratic space as both of the other cast members, Charmaine Weir-Smith and Renate Stuurman, attest.
“We have sat around discussing a single word for 90 minutes,” says Heaney and one of his M-Net interns watching the production unfold was astonished.
“This is epic play-making,” says Slab, proudly grinning about what they are about to accomplish. He’s thrilled to be back with something new and something of its time. That’s always what his work has been about. His stories have always come from the heartland; real people battling with their lives in a country that seemed too complicated to navigate. But he doesn’t just capture the essence of the story, he has always been a dialogue genius when he writes for specific voices.
Suddenly the Storm will have its world premiere at the Market Theatre from June 7 and is launched to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising of 1976.
The play is set in the far East Rand, the home of an ageing ex-cop (Slab) and his much younger wife ( Weir-Smith). A Storm approaches… Namhla Gumede (Stuurman), born on June 16, 1976 arrives, seeking answers to questions that have remained buried for 40 long years.
“What begins as a smouldering dark comedy turns suddenly into a roller-coaster ride of startling revelations, of rage and recrimination,” says the writer, describing the play which in all its incantations took five years to write. He tuned into the zeitgeist and it’s all there: racism, sexism, abuse… and he runs on.
It all started when he wrote a two-hander, Guarding Mrs Gumede, for Grahamstown: “I thought I would do them a favour and keep it small,” he says, checking the boxes for all today’s realities.
But it wasn’t accepted and whatever the real reason, the official letter coming from the National Arts Festival isn’t the most encouraging as it talks of the high standard of plays accepted for that particular year.
But Slab isn’t a novice and while this might slay beginners, he moved on and developed this current work following a conversation with his actor/director daughter (Frances).
“I told her I really wanted my male character’s wife on stage and she asked why didn’t I write her in?”
He “destroyed” his first play, “not literally, we never shred our own work,” but it was head down to start a new work. The groundwork had been laid, he knew these people and in a way, this latest version started writing itself. “Plays have a way of taking different routes,” he says and now he knows that everything that happens in the making, works out in the end.
First thing’s first, and Heaney had to read the work before they took to begging for somewhere to play. The excitement among actresses for these particular roles has been huge. They show me some SMS examples (no names), but everyone had to audition and the two women selected say they have fallen in love with this play.
More than anything, says Slab, it is about reconciliation. And thinking about it, it plays like a thriller. For both these boys, it’s about doing justice to the work. They’ve brought in Greg King from Durban for the set. I had to be epic and for Slab, it’s about delivering a knockout blow for audiences.Their lighting designer, Wesley France, has also been along for the ride from their early days.
This theatre is the heart of his creative soul, says Heaney about the impact of this current gig and he has loved bringing Slab’s Suddenly the Storm to life. With Slab intimately comfortable with his character, it has allowed Heaney to push the two women and give them undivided attention which has also been a luxury.
In conclusion, Slab says, everything that happened along the rocky road of writing this play has been a “happy accident”. For him, it seems to have been the perfect storm.