Stage: The Return of Elvis Du Pisanie – Seabrooke’s Theatre, DHS, Berea, Durban
– Final performance at 2.30pm tomorrow (Sunday, May 10) –
REVIEW BY BILLY SUTER
WHEN I first saw and reviewed the original run of the Paul Slabolepszy-penned tour de force, The Return of Elvis du Pisanie, I was a critic for The Mercury newspaper in Durban. The year was 1992, and I said then of this work, which also starred Slabolepszy: “Buy, beg or steal but get your hands on a ticket for this magnificent play…!” That sentence has since been used on posters advertising the show.
Now the multiple-award-winning work, set in the 1970s, has been revived and is back on stage in Durban – this weekend only – as part of a successful national tour; this time with Slabolepzsy as director, and with former Durbanite Ashley Dowds in the title role. And it is so good to report that the one-hander retains all its power and clout, remaining one of my favourite works from one of South Africa’s most celebrated playwrights.
Dowds, as much at home on stage as he is on television, is the best I have seen him on stage, his performance here so very well deserved of his recent nomination for a Naledi Award.
Meshing humour and heartache, nostalgia and pathos, the play has a set depicting a leaf-edged pavement with a lamppost against a night sky. This is where we meet longtime Elvis Presley fan Eddie Du Pisanie, a 40-something East Rand salesman, who is, well, all shook up. He’s at an all-time low, sitting next to a plastic crate and with a beer close by.
Eddie has been retrenched, has written a suicide note to his wife and had planned to gas himself in his car in his garage. Just before he was about to do so, however, Eddie turned on his car radio and heard an Elvis song that had him reflecting on his life – and temporarily shelving suicide plans to take stock of his situation.
When we meet him, he has already driven some 200km to Witbank, where he grew up. He is hugging the lamppost across the road from the former Carlton Bioscope. There, dishevelled and perhaps a little tipsy, he wallows deep in nostalgia, and sets about trying to analyse when, why and how his life started to go so wrong… and while struggling with life’s disappointments, he uses Elvis as a coping mechanism.
During the course of this sometimes intense tragi-comedy, Eddie yo-yos between despair and joy. He paints richly colourful vignettes recalling highs that include performing a Presley song at a talent contest; and getting to know his first teen love, one Lydia Swanepoel, whose bobbing ponytail left him weak at the knees. Also a highlight is a descriptive, amusing sequence focused on a memory of a prank on a cantankerous uncle that involved a longdrop toilet.
Eddie talks, too, of childhood lows – not least among them many tense moments with a volatile father and rather meek mum, and a particular memory which, revealed towards the end of the story, had a huge impact on his life…
Dowds offers a commanding, hugely affecting performance. He turns, often in a flash and with a changing parade of expressions and accents, into all the characters he is discussing. He gives his all, both physically and through a full gamut of emotions. The vivid scenarios spring to life with help from Slabolepszy’s assured direction, by turns zesty and nuanced, and sharp dialogue that bristles with Slabolepszy’s trademark, strong South African flavouring.
Wicks bubblegum, Sunrise toffees, lucky dips, Vauxhalls and Pontiacs, klei lat games, bioscope matinee shows for only a sixpence… just some of the many blasts from the past that pop up in this vibrant script.
Don’t miss this one! The final performance at the cosy Seabrooke’s Theatre at DHS is at 2.30pm tomorrow (Sunday). Booking is at Webtickets or tickets can be bought at the door. Be there!
Note that the Seabrooke’s Theatre has guarded parking and a bar/snack service.
.....SoSuterBill..... 