Three weeks of Andrew Buckland

Janice Buckland directs all three plays: The Ugly Noo Noo, Between The Teeth (both written by Andrew Buckland), and Nobel Prize-winning Italian theatre maker Dario Fo's Mistero Buffo.

This exciting season celebrates the contribution to the South African performance canon of this unique performer who, since 1988 has been producing original work of a consistently high standard. He is widely respected and acknowledged to be at the forefront of theatre developments in this country. Employing a combination of visual comedy, sophisticated political satire, clowning, physical theatre, mime and an explosive performance style, his works have become synonymous with provocative, entertaining and stimulating theatre both locally and abroad. His original plays have won several national and international theatre awards, including several for best performance, best script, best production and play of the year.

The Ugly Noo Noo

The Ugly Noo Noo rocked the local theatre world in 1988 with its unusual name, unusual performer, and its featuring of the infamous Parktown Prawn. The play combines sharp political satire with exquisite humour and superb technical skill. It became the benchmark for solo physical theatre performance and the legend of The Ugly Noo Noo was begun. Today, 20 years later, the extraordinary nature of the show and its creator continues to enthral and entertain audiences all over the world.

Between the Teeth, first performed in 1991, was developed as a theatrical and comically satirical response to a government, which, despite its obvious and fast-approaching demise in the 1980s, had become expert at the distortion of the spoken word to justify ideological absurdities and human atrocities. The play takes a seriously comic look at the relationship between word, gesture, meaning and truth. The relationship between war and money, the way in which language is used as a form of self-defence, and the inflammatory nature of racial insults all become satirical weapons in the hands of the performer.

Mistero Buffo, the one-man epic performance, written by Dario Fo and first staged in 1969, is a one-man epic performance combining the grotesque comedy of the Italian medieval performance traditions with razor-sharp contemporary political satire. The play, which caused great controversy in 1977 when televised, by distilling the popular and irreverent elements of medieval mystery plays, functions as a political and cultural onslaught against the repressions of religious institutions and landowning classes throughout history, expressing them in the language of the peasantry.
Buckland presents this onslaught from a specifically South African perspective and, in so doing, accesses the universal truths of this phenomenal work of theatre. The work is sophisticated yet simple, wildly physical and extremely funny.

Returned from Vegas

In July last year Buckland returned to SA from Las Vegas, where he performed the Sgt Pepper character in the production Love with the prestigious Cirque du Soleil. In recent years he performed at the Baxter in The Well-Being, Fuse, Betrayal and Truth in Translation. Earlier this year he performed in Meet Market at the Infecting the City Festival. Other solo performances include Bloodstream, Noisy Walk, and The Water Juggler. Since July 1992 he has been a senior lecturer and later Associate Professor in Rhodes University's drama department. These days he teaches one term of each year at the university and works as a freelance theatre maker and performer.

Performances

All performances are at 8.15pm with dates as follows: The Ugly Noo Noo on May 4, 5, 14, 15, 19 and 20; Between the Teeth on May 6, 10,11, 21 and 22 and Mistero Buffo on May 7, 8, 12,13, 17 and 18. For more information about the performance schedule, go to the Baxter's website at www.baxter.co.za.

Ticket prices for the Andrew Buckland season range from R70 for the Baxter Monday special offer, which includes a light meal, to R120 for Tuesdays to Thursdays and R130 on Fridays and Saturdays. Patrons who book for all three shows, for any performance (except Baxter Mondays), will pay just R200.

Booking is through Computicket on +27 (0)83 915 8000, online at www.computicket.co.za or at any Shoprite Checkers outlet countrywide. For discounted block, schools or corporate bookings, charities and fundraisers, contact Sharon on +27 (0)21 680 3962 and Carmen on +27 (0)21 680 3993, during office hours.