Jessie, die man en die maan is a beautiful story about relationships, loss, longing, loneliness and the moon.
I google “moon symbolism” and find out that the moon is a feminine symbol that represents the rhythm of time. Being obsessed with the moon is therefore obsession with the passing of time and the cyclical nature of life. The full moon is a time of contradictions. As we learn from Jessie, die man en die Maan, certain cultures believe that a child born on a full moon will be torn in opposite directions by these conflicting elements within themselves. They will oppose themselves in everything they do. So you should expect a child of the full moon to face many problems - and you have to watch them carefully. This is the base metaphor from which the entire story stems.
AB met Jane in primary school. As an adult, he reconnects with her and soon realises he has feelings for the now grown-up woman. Finally he draws up the courage to ask her for a drink and things naturally evolve. Two years later they marry and not long after Jane becomes pregnant - despite being on the pill. Initial fear and hesitancy soon turns into excitement as the couple prepare to become parents. But Jane develops complications and there are problems from the start. Their child, Jessie, is born on a full moon - a bad omen, AB’s dad warns. But they ignore him and continue with their lives. Jane’s health does not recover and she is in constant pain. As a result she struggles as a mother and is placed on pills that also affect her emotional well being.
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Carlo Daniels delivers a highly energised and nuanced performance. His physicality is commanding. It is not an easy piece to act in. There are huge physical demands, a highly packed text, multiple characters to play and a very wide emotional range required.
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AB does what he can to help, but juggling work, fatherhood and the emotional rollercoaster of his relationship with Jane becomes more and more overwhelming. In the end he is unable to save his wife and her death also pushes Jessie into a spiral that leads to his death. AB is left alone. It is a tragic story. A story of loss, of things that should not have been and that nearly weren’t. It is the story of a small pebble landing in the water and causing unknown ripples. It is the story of superstition and of wanting a reason for things to have gone so terribly wrong. This is very relatable: play about trying to draw someone you love back, but losing them more and more in the process; a play about our bodies failing us and our own vulnerability as humans; a play about losing those we love and, too late, regretting all that we did and did not do.
Carlo Daniels delivers a highly energised and nuanced performance. His physicality is commanding. It is not an easy piece to act in. There are huge physical demands, a highly packed text, multiple characters to play and a very wide emotional range required. And Daniels makes it look easy - if draining. Despite this being a male protagonist and a very strong, almost aggressive style in the choreography, this play has an extremely feminine energy. Maybe it is the moon itself, or maybe it is the effect of a female director and writer. But somehow there is a softness to it, a delicacy under the surface.
The staging is minimalist, yet effective. We have a chair, a window and pair of lamps. The lamps are used throughout to play with light and shadow. My main note would be that the globes in the lamps are a little too bright. From an imagery point of view it works, but at times I struggled to look at the stage without hurting my eyes. If that is the worst thing I can say about a play, you should know it is a good one. I found it both interesting to look at and metaphorically rich. The music was also subtle, but assisted the emotional flow of the piece. I repeatedly reference water, because something about the play creates the feeling of waves ebbing and flowing. And since water is so closely tied to the moon, I believe it is intentional. If not, it is a lucky accident.
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This is a beautifully crafted piece of theatre that maintains a delicate balance between reality, symbolism, narrative and physical theatre. It is poetry in motion.
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Kanya Viljoen has a strong stylistic approach. She has a talent for taking deep, sad and emotional themes and framing them in a way that is both breathtaking and mesmerising. It’s almost as if the entire play is a type of lullaby or folk tale told around the fire. I find the best thing to do is to sit back, let it wash over you and make sense of it later on. While Viljoen’s plays generally have a lot of white or sepia tones, this one is darker - almost like a black and white film. Stark lighting creates shadows and outlines etched jarringly on stage. However, there is something innately vulnerable about these images that still darkly bewitching. This is a beautifully crafted piece of theatre that maintains a delicate balance between reality, symbolism, narrative and physical theatre. It is poetry in motion.
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The post Jessie, die man en die maan: a review | Toyota US Woordfees 2023 first appeared on LitNet.
The post <em>Jessie, die man en die maan</em>: a review | Toyota US Woordfees 2023 appeared first on LitNet.