Whenever we go on tour I and the production team try to do something special for the cast. Part of the development aspect of this project is exposure to new places and experiences. These excursions and the discussions we have afterward are always some of the most rewarding moments of tour, and I am constantly reminded of how very much I take for granted.
In Cape Town last May the cast went to the aquarium and to the beach, most of them had never been to the sea and certainly had no idea what strange and glorious creatures lurk beneath the waves. production team member Riaan Landsberg, a deep sea diver by trade, insisted on the trip to the aquarium.
I remember Wentzel Katjara, who plays Bambo in the show, rolled around in the water like a porpoise – the happiest porpoise I’ve ever seen. Wentzel is a community leader and from the royal line of the Khwe tribe, as well as a former soldier for the South African Army so he has definitely seen the world, much more so than most people in his community, but he told me he had not seen the ocean in many years so he wanted to experience the salt and the wind again. He said he would take the ocean home with him on his skin.
In Santon, the most upscale part of Johannesburg, we took the cast to a few shopping malls - mostly because the only thing there is to do in Sandton is shop.
Rabekka Baru, one of the oldest members of the cast, is a !Xun woman in her mid- sixties who speaks neither English nor Afrikaans. She enjoyed looking in the windows of all the fancy boutiques and salons, and was generally enjoying herself until the group reached the escalator. Rabekka had never seen escalator before in her life, much less been told she must ride one! She protested, clung to the railings and raised a big racket before her husband Joao finally convinced her that the stairs were not going to swallow her up.
On our last tour which ended in November we went to Bloemfontein, about two hours from our base city of Kimberley. Bloemfontein is bigger than Kimberley and the centre of the Free State, but it is hardly a thriving metropolis and we were all feeling hard pressed to come up with something interesting to do with the cast. Until I remembered that our charming new Tour Manager, Yolande le Grange, just happens to be a pilot and her family owns a Cessna 210 six-seater!
We arrived in Bloemfontein on Sunday morning and after the cast helped the crew off load the set at the theatre we sent them to check-in at the game lodge with a promise of a surprize waiting for them that afternoon.
When we met up later that evening all 20 of us, cast, crew and production team sat around the table and laughed ourselves silly as the actors made fun of each other and Robert Fick, our new Jackal, told us about how our macho young leading men screamed like school girls through most of the flight. Tommy (Young Chamba), made sounds like a dying cow every time Yolande dipped and turned the airplane, and Riekert (Dala), spent the better part of the flight under his seat.
Under the seat perhaps?
My favourite quote for the evening was what Benjamin (Chamba), had to say of the experience; “Why must we go chasing after death? One day death will find us on its own!” Didn’t you like the airplane?” I asked. “I liked it better on the ground” he said.
