By BRUCE DENNILL
Albie Sachs: Fathers, Sons, And Soft Vengeance / Directed by Fiona Ramsay / Theatre On The Square, Sandton, Johannesburg
Albie Sachs has never courted the limelight as much as many South African political figures of his generation, but this play, by playwright Gail Louw (Blonde Poison and Miss Dietrich Regrets – both of which have been produced with this play’s director Fiona Ramsay in the lead role) is just one marker of his continued prominence in South Africa’s cultural conscience. Appointed to the first Constitutional Court by Nelson Mandela after a life and career of activism and dedication to justice, Sachs went on to have a son, Oliver, when aged 71 (he turns 91 later this year) and to learn and try to fulfil new roles late in life.
The lawyer and author’s relationship with his son is one of the play’s constant threads, but there are numerous highlights and traumas from a life very fully lived to include as well. Chief among these – and as such not surprisingly placed right near the beginning of the piece – is the car bomb that claimed Sachs’ right arm and left eye, an event that plays a huge role in, if not forming, then cementing his perspectives on people: family, friends and foes alike.
Graham Hopkins, in what is somehow his first one-man show – amazing for such an experienced and acclaimed actor – takes on the role of Sachs. Visually, with slightly darkened hair and the Panama hat and strongly patterned dress shirt that are Sach’s calling cards, Hopkins looks spookily similar to his character, and he matches Sachs’ Lithuanian/South African Jewish accent brilliantly as well.
The play is not quite a monologue. Hopkins handles all of Sachs’ narration duties (there is no fourth wall) as well as all the comic asides, of which there are a fair few – he may have taken on country-shaping court cases, but Sachs was and remains a man with a twinkle in his eye. In addition to that, though, he listens to and responds to memories of moments with his son, included as recorded snippets voiced by Oliver Sachs himself.
It’s interesting to have the differences between Sachs’ personae – activist, lawyer, family man – outlined in such clear ways, but these mechanisms are symptomatic of the play’s big challenges: trying to fit two-thirds of a century of involvement in arguably the most turbulent era of South African history into 90 minutes of stage time. The father-son interaction creates a story core and is a constant reminder of Sachs’ humanity – something he is richly blessed with but which might be easy to forget when considering the inferred violence of the titles used to refer to him, including ‘freedom fighter’, ‘struggle warrior’ and ‘defender of justice’. But the remainder of the show, while entertaining, features enough scenes and life events from Sachs’ personal history to ensure that the detail involved in some setpieces is limited, occasionally a little frustratingly so. And in one notable case, involving an everyday life function that Sachs found he would struggle with while recovering from the injuries from the bombing, there is probably too much detail, which slows down the play for that segment.
The piece is set for a transfer to Cape Town after this run, with possible touring beyond that, and Hopkins and Ramsay will continue to refine the piece and assimilate more of Sachs’ essence as they continue to tell an important story – educating audiences not yet aware of Sachs’s vital work and influence and celebrating those achievements with those already in the know. A man who survives an assassination attempt and then fights to ensure that the perpetrators receive the fairest hearing possible is a rare breed indeed.