By BRUCE DENNILL
The Tramp / Directed by Amanda Bothma / Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg
Amanda Bothma and her team at Wêla Kapela Productions have figured out a storytelling formula that transcends the media they are working in, and it’s wonderful to be able to see it develop and expand with each new production they stage. Looking at the elements involved, it looks like perfectly serviceable cabaret material: a singing, dancing, talking central character; a set of songs both contemporary and, if viable, contemporaneous to the character; and an angle on that character’s story that doesn’t simply repeat exhausted cliches that even the most vaguely aware audience member has seen, read or heard a hundred times.
In the hands of Bothma and the star of three Wêla Kapela shows – Vincent: His Quest To Love And Be Loved; Mad About The Boys and now The Tramp – Daniel Anderson, these relatively basic tools are somehow manipulated into magic. There’s no trickery involved, though: the success of these pieces, and arguably more importantly, the emotional impact they leave on the audience, is a product of technical excellence and a faithfulness in achieving a mood and a texture that speaks to their protagonists’ head- and heart spaces.
The Tramp was Charlie Chaplin’s alter ego when the latter was arguably the most famous person on the planet – and recognised for his distinctive Tramp costume (scruffy black suit, bowler hat, small upper lip moustache) and mannerisms (wide, darting eyes; shimmying along with an odd penguin-esque gait and more). Bothma’s sophisticated script makes that character the narrator in this play, telling his own and Chaplin’s (the man and filmmaker) stories in parallel and including cameos (marked by changing accents and physical stances and movements) from a number of other people who were part of Chaplin’s life. These include the Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, Chaplin’s four wives and, in a breathlessly frenzied courtroom scene, various lawyers and judges.
All the action is supported by a clever, condensed set design by Wilhelm Disbergen that incorporates three different projectors and edited video streams, all adding detail and momentum to the Tramp’s narration and a recorded soundtrack that augments what is always one of the best parts of this series of cabarets – Paul Ferreira’s unfussy but genuinely brilliant piano playing. He has perfected the knack of doing nothing to distract either the vocalist he is accompanying or the audience while still playing complex and satisfying arrangements that take enormous skill to perform as apparently effortlessly as he does.
Every space left in this carefully constructed framework is filled by Anderson, whose mastery of the Tramp’s tics – the facial expressions, the way he moves, the precise position of his limbs in various scenarios – is complete. Without music, this would be an excellent performance, honouring a clever concept and a multi-faceted storyline. With music (a line-up that includes everything from Sting to My Fair Lady via Mendelssohn and folk songs), it has transcendent moments, giving Anderson full rein to stretch his distinctive vocals – think a sort of male Édith Piaf, with all of the cabaret-friendly expression that brings. In a show full of highlights, there is a moment during a gorgeous, slowed down and emptied out arrangement (by Bryan Schimmel) of Queen’s The Great Pretender in which Anderson hits a high note in an otherwise starkly bare part of the arrangement with such rawness and vulnerability that the Tramp’s/Chaplin’s complicated, profound, flawed presence is just about summed up in a single moment. It’s the kind of theatre-making that can’t really be planned according to theory, but rather felt as it lands emotionally, and a collective intake of breath throughout the theatre underlines how incredibly powerful it is.
Like Vincent, which continues to run to huge acclaim at festivals and various theatres, The Tramp will keep charming audiences for years to come, very likely inspiring repeat visits to enjoy different parts of the production in fresh ways.
