It is fascinating to watch how people interact - or don't - on trains. What are they thinking? In Yasmina Reza's play The Unexpected Man we get to look inside the heads of two people on a train as they unwrap their lives and desires.
Riding on a train will never be the same again. It is performed and directed by Shaun Acker and Zanne Solomon and is at the Intimate, Hiddingh Campus until May 12 and at Alexander Upstairs in Strand Street from May 15 to 25, excluding May 19.
French playwright Reza is probably best known to local audiences for her play God of Carnage. Directors Acker and Solomon say as far as they have been able to ascertain, The Unexpected Man (first staged in 1995) has not been performed in Cape Town so, for most of us, it is the first opportunity to see this gem.
The writing is evocative. The pareddown performances by these two young actors is breathtaking. They convey much through gesture, grimace, fumbling and tugging on their clothes -just as people do on trains - when they feel awkward, exposed and want to connect but are not sure how to. It is a serious play, but there is plenty humour.
In addition to directing, with input from Brink Scholtz, who they have billed as their "creative guide", "associate director" and "outside eye", Acker and Solomon cooked up the clever stage design - a revolving table/plinth. It was assembled by Solomon's father, Hugh. Acker and Solomon, who are Rhodes University drama graduates with Master's degrees, are versatile performers who dip into diverse array of disciplines.
Acker, who grew up in a circus-his parents worked for the Boswell Wilkie Circus, also has a degree in music. He recently dazzled audiences in the children's production Swoop at the Kalk Bay Theatre. Solomon has been captivating audiences as part of the TheatreSports company of improv players and as a stand-up comic.
Did they do much train-spotting in preparation for The Unexpected Man? Acker muses: "I watched people more for the interpersonal dynamics. "There is a beautiful and poetic awkwardness between people on a train. No one says anything.
No one looks at each other. Almost everyone is sullen - until something happens, ie someone sits down playing music on their headphones really loudly or someone starts raising their voice in an argument during a phone conversation. "Suddenly everyone is happily passing comments about the disturbance with the perfect stranger next to them as if they had been friends all their lives."
Solomon adds: "More than watching how people sit, I was interested in how people make or avoid eye contact on the train, and where they look while they're thinking." Solomon points out that the play feels timeless: "It is so blankly set up in this 'nothing/nowhere' space.
It feels like it could take place in a train compartment anywhere, in any country even on the moon, at any time period. It feels like it's a contained world, a little time capsule." Book for the Intimate at 072 139 5217. Bookings for Alexander Upstairs are at 021 300 1652. cohenry@netactive.co.za
By: Robyn Cohen
Caption: ALONG FOR THE RIDE: Zanne Solomon and Shaun Acker star in The Unexpected Man, which looks at the lives of two men travelling on a train.
Source: SATURDAY WEEKEND ARGUS