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Iago's Last Dance unsettles the Artscape
Iago's Last Dance is a trilogy written by Mike van Graan and developed from the work of his Masters degree which explores HIV/AIDS as a theme in mainstream theatre. In the writer's notes Mike van Graan comments on how little HIV/AIDS is reflected in theatre and speculates on some of the reasons for this. He asks nevertheless whether such a serious theme can make for good theatre, and has written three short sketches that show the huge and dramatic effect of HIV/AIDS on the ordinary lives of ordinary people.
Lara Bye directs Iago's Last Dance and brings out fierce performances from Mbulelo Grootboom, Nthombi Makhutshi and Jan-Hendrik Opperman. The three actors inhabit the three different roles that each of them play with conviction.
This is the kind of play that really does need to be written and performed and it is the kind of play that should move audiences to respond in different ways to the AIDS pandemic. It should have been good theatre, and in many ways it was good theatre. However, I found myself strangely un-moved by the trilogy, even though it did improve a great deal from the first rather stilted first sketch to a fluent final part. The characters and the stories were all believable and easily accessible as objects of identification, so that was not the cause of my hard hearted response. All the technical aspects such as lighting, music and set design were fine. There was plenty of drama and development of dramatic tension, and it's not that I was bored - on the contrary, I found the whole piece compelling and absorbing.
But I think the reason for my lack of emotional response was that there was so much anger in the piece and that there was very little let-up in the level of high-level, raised- voice anger. If there had been more gentleness and tenderness in the performances and in the script, it would have created a welcome change of pace, and for me a more compassionate response.
