JM Coetzee’s novel, Life & Times of Michael K, is a desolate and punishing thing. His imagined version of the Western Cape, under the siege of civil war, is a cold and lonely place. The only warmth that seems present is that from the raging fires set by rebels.
While the theatrical production based on the book is just as hauntingly sad, the play is a fiercely emotional story, with warm and vibrant characters that sing with liveliness in Coetzee’s bleak, apathetic world. Liveliness that is, in fact, quite ironic, given that the characters are played by puppets.
On for a short run at Joburg’s Market Theatre, this production of Life & Times of Michael K is far from passive – “in fact, it questions apathy”, says the play’s director, Lara Foot. The play is about purpose and love as much as it is about suffering and oppression. “Michael’s determination is a hugely powerful, emotional part of his character.”
Thus, the choice to have inanimate puppets take on the roles of the two main characters seems strange but, as Foot explains, it is precisely because they are not real people that these bamboo-carved characters can inhabit such emotion. “[The play] is deep and thoughtful in the way only a puppet can embrace, like a container,” she says. They can be filled up with ideas, in the way an actor with their own personality simply cannot be.
As the workings of Michael’s life unfold before the audience, it becomes obvious that the puppets are a brilliant creative choice.
Page to stage
The play follows the eponymous Michael K, a young man born with a hair lip that bothers others much more than it bothers him. Having grown up in Cape Town, Michael only really finds peace and purpose in his gardening job. When his mother falls ill, he is determined to take her back to the farm of her birth in Prince Albert. Michael and his mother cannot leave the province legally without permits, so Michael constructs a bizarre machine to wheel his mother all the way home.
Michael and his mother are as alive as any of the actors on stage as they go about their journey. The actors manipulating the puppets move smoothly and effortlessly while still playing their own roles flawlessly. A small troupe of only nine actors, the cast embody at least three or four characters each, using hats or scarves to signify new roles.
It is magical to watch the puppets walk, run, cook, swim and go about life, so realistic are their movements. If you watch closely, you can see the actors’ own hands picking objects up and moving them, but their motions are so deft that they are difficult to really focus on. Everything is done to make the puppets as truly alive as possible.
The play is as hilarious as it is depressing. Michael’s wooden face is lit this way and that to change expressions, and the voice actors for the puppets convey achingly raw emotions. His interactions with the public, especially his jovial mother and some mischievous small children, are genuinely funny and heartwarming.
But, of course, this is a Coetzee work, and the atmosphere is always one of fear and violence. The play is “completely universal” in its description of a world in turmoil, Foot says. Michael’s “quest for independence and freedom” rings as true for people today as the play’s themes of war, landlessness and displacement, she tells Currency. From Ukraine to the US, people know this tale.
A portrait of South Africa
That said, the play is South African in its bones. There is a luscious mix of local language, not only in the dialogue but in the songs too. The characters slip easily between English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, complaining about potholes or long lines for the bus. Even Michael’s outfit is quintessentially South African – the traditional working man’s overalls with reflective stripes.
Most South African of all, perhaps, is the civil war. With every description of this armed struggle, we are reminded that Coetzee’s book was written in 1983, during the depths of apartheid.
And yet, Michael’s story has so little to do with this conflict. The play is really about purpose. Michael’s story is one “with a hole in it”, one of the actors narrates. The play is about filling this hole. As Michael himself says, not every man can go off to war; “some men must stay behind and garden”.
In a world that today looks uncannily like one of Coetzee’s bleak landscapes, this countervision is a treat for the mind and a salve for the heart.
‘Life & Times of Michael K’ will be showing at Joburg’s Market Theatre until April 13.
Images: Supplied.
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