The Rhodes University production at the Student Theatre Festival never fails to draw a crowd. Solo, which follows a mother's journey to retrieve her drowned daughter, opened to a soldout theatre.
The directorial debut of Masters student Hannah Lax stars Fleur du Cap-winning Liezl de Kock as the mother, whose portrayal of mourning is breath-taking.
Lea Vivier as the daughter captures all the petulance and wonder of a child. "The waves are so big!" she exclaims, scuttling around the stage in "Granny's dress". She dodges between lantern-bearing actors representing waves until she is swept up and joins them as part of the ocean. De Kock pushes frantically at the blue fabric of the dress that was once her mother's but cannot summon her daughter's frame back into it.
They are balanced neatly against Sandi Dlangalala's comedic portrayal of the lonely Death who longs to find someone to love. He reaches out to hug each new arrival to his realm as they stream past. They slip around him, handing over their paper tickets and moving on.
The three collide when De Kock attempts to find her daughter and must first find a way past Death to get to her. "When are we going?" she whispers repeatedly to her daughter. "Now, now," is Vivier's forlorn reply, hanging the audience in limbo alongside them. While most of the dialogue is in Afrikaans, the story is still accessible to those with no knowledge of the language. The physicality of the piece, from the smooth scene transitions that form part of the action to the large supporting cast who become everything from lost souls to the legs of a giant insect, is skilfully highlighted by the sound design of the piece, led by the rollicking, spacey sounds of Shawn Sankey's live guitar-playing.
Solo is seamlessly put together and left its audience sobbing. Lax masterfully fills the theatre with this surreal and desolate piece.
Article by Stuart Thembisile Lewis
Photos by Mia van der Merwe
Tatum Naidoo, Lea Vivier, Ryan de Villiers and Serena Paver in Solo.