Feeling the oppression:Bayo Gbadamosi (Ben) and Jordan Baker (Skinn). Photo credit: Johan Persson
Theatre: Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Theatre
Play: I See You
Playwright: Mongiwekhaya
Director: Noma Dumezweni
Review by Patsy Antoine
Having stepped in for Kim Cattrall, to great acclaim, in Linda and bagged the role of Hermione Granger in the stage version of Harry Potter, it seems there’s no stopping Noma Dumezweni. Now, it seems, her talents have found a new outlet.
I See You, Dumezweni’s directorial debut, is a stark snapshot of the racial, cultural and intergenerational tensions in contemporary South Africa. And it’s a triumph.
Ben (Bayo Gbadamosi) is a young, black South African on a night out with Skinn (Jordan Baker) a young, sassy white girl. When they are pulled over by police officer Buthelezi (Desmond Dube), an ex-ANC freedom fighter, racial and cultural tensions are quickly ignited.
It doesn’t take long for Buthelezi to discover that Ben speaks only English: his mother tongue forgotten when his parents fled apartheid to bring him up in America.
Buthelezi, angry about a restraining order from his estranged wife and at a South Africa he fought for, but now doesn’t recognise, decides to teach Ben a brutal lesson.
Dube captures Buthelezi’s simmering, volatile resentment with a strong performance, while Gbadamosi’s quietly defiant Ben offers a convincing contrast.
With sections of the script performed in Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, the audience experiences Ben’s vulnerability alongside him as he is continually brutalised by Buthelezi. In a pared-back set, the entire production sizzles with the racial tensions sadly characteristic of contemporary South Africa.
Although the cast of supporting characters aren’t fully explored, their appearances add a bitter flavour to the harsh realities of a country struggling to recover from its troubled past: an A&E doctor who turns her back on Buthelezi’s attack on Ben; the remnants of white superiority hinted at in Skinn’s defiant attitude towards the police.
Inspired by a real event in playwright Mongiwekhaya’s life, I See You explores the uncomfortable space between old and new ideals. It examines the loss of social and cultural bonds and is a testament to what happens when the very things that should unite us – our language, our race, our culture – are eroded.
But perhaps the most poignant revelation of all is when Ben ‘sees’ Buthelezi for who he really is – an empty, angry, broken man consumed by emptiness – and offers him love.
A conclusion leaves us hopeful that the many cultural and racial differences which still exist in South Africa can one day be cured.
I See You is at the Royal Court Theatre until Saturday 26 March 2016, before its move to the Market Theatre Johannesburg from 13 April to 1 May 2016.