By BRUCE DENNILL
The Good White / Directed by Greg Homann / Barney Simon Theatre, Market Theatre, Newtown, Johannesburg
With a potentially inflammatory title and marketing that informs audiences that one of the topics examined in the script is the #FeesMustFall movement (a student-led response to increasing tuition fees at universities, which involved a number of protests and the temporary shutting down of some institutions), A Good White is easy enough to superficially consider as a worthy addition to the collective processing of that period, rather than a work of art that speaks to the heart as well as the brain.
Happily, thanks chiefly to Mike Van Graan’s insightful, cutting, multi-faceted script, the piece delivers all of its political punches while never failing to keep the myriad facets of a scenario that involves deep-seated racism, class-prejudice and chauvinism simmering, ready to boil over should circumstances provoke such a reaction.
The depth and density of the script is reflected in another way, in that the cast functions as much as a mechanism for delivering a lavishness of layered intellectual expressions as they are playing nuanced characters. It’s a mechanism that works brilliantly, though, underlining that cultural movements, geared as they are towards shifting the function of entire societies, are still shaped by personal relationships and their specific complexities.
The four characters here – three professors of different races (Russel Savadier, Renate Stuurman and Vusi Kunene) and the strident leader of the student activist group at the university that employs them (Shonisani Masutha) each have their own ingrained agendas, meaning that, smart as they all are, they are all sometimes blind to the irony of their political and ethical principles being undermined by some of their private actions. The result is that, through all the challenging interactions and intellectual sparring that goes on, these are people who are difficult to like. As suggested by the play’s title, Savadier’s Professor Simon Whitehead is easier to connect to, as someone whose record shows that he has consistently tried to make a positive difference for all parties concerned, even if he is constantly hamstrung by stereotyped perspectives that make all these efforts somehow less valuable because he, as a white male with a good job, has enjoyed unfair advantages in getting to a position where he could be of use.
Van Graan has blended issues of privilege, selfishness, prejudice, insecurity, pride, principle and politics into such an intricate tapestry that audience members will be processing the action and its meaning and consequences for hours afterwards, including a notable and important output: you’ll be trying to figure out which character you most relate to, and why and how. And it won’t necessarily have anything to do with the colour of your skin, your gender, your age or even your current perspective on the issues at play.
If you leave a performance of this piece without feeling simultaneously worried and buzzed about what ordinary South Africans are capable of (for good or ill, depending on their intent), you weren’t paying attention in the theatre. This is a story that should get you to think more deeply on issues (#FeesMustFall is just one example) that have no simple answers but which still require engagement. No single person can untangle the matted mess South Africa – along with scores of other countries – has tied itself in, but a willingness to engage would be an excellent start.
