| What: Becoming Benno Performer and writer: Ben Voss Director: Michael Richard Dramaturge: John van de Ruit Duration: 55mins Where: The Drama Factory (July 18-20), Theatre Arts (July 23 & 24), Kalk Bay Theatre July 25 – 27 – 2025 Where: Drama Factory, Theatre Arts and Kalk Bay Theatre Bookings: On their websites |
Ben Voss recently received an Ovation Award at the 2025 National Arts Festival for his comedic play, Becoming Benno. The play was acclaimed at the Adelaide Fringe Festival and was Adelaide Fest award winner. He is touring the Cape with Benno to three venues: The Drama Factory, Theatre Arts and Kalk Bay Theatre.
I saw Benno tonight, July 24 at Theatre Arts. It is on tomorrow night, July 24 and then on at the Kalk Bay Theatre (July 25-27). Becoming Benno is a funny, contemplative and wistful look at immigrating. In Becoming Benno, Vos plays himself, arriving in Australia on an Australian Global Artistic Talent Visa and being detained at the airport by the border authorities over issued around his permanent residency. Frantic and anxious, he does his best to remain chipper as he makes calls to his wife and daughter who are waiting for him to pass through the gates.
Vos who lives in Durban with his wife, does have an Australian Global Artistic Talent Visa but he wasn’t detained for hours in a tiny room, as depicted in Benno. The protagonist Benno has been shaped by stories of others who have met with challenges when entering Australia and other countries.
I thoroughly enjoyed the poignancy, humour and the respect that Vos gives for both South Africa and Australia. He told me after the show, that his 89 year old father and brother live in Australia. Leaving SA is about safety, reuniting with his family who live over there and exploring another place, after living in Durban all of his life.
Vos has adeptly used artistic licence in writing Benno which beyond the narrative is a mediation on leaving one’s home country and moving to another country, where you don’t necessarily understand the lingo. It is about identity, home, hopes; the opportunity to explore another country, meet new people and have different experiences. Refrains from the Men at Work song, Down Under (1981) underscore the sense of Benno tumbling through the green light at the airport, to a future of unknowns. Vos evokes characters and yummy Ozzie accents in the small room of his detention: The border official and Nigel, the man who sweeps the floor. Nigel and Benno bond over theatre. Wonderful physical comedy and timing, under the seamless direction of Michael Richard. Vos’ writing riffs with keenly observed characters.
It is very funny and entertaining to watch what goes on in the little room at the airport. We are all afraid of being detained in a little room, in any airport. I shudder at the thought of being summoned out of the line. This is very relatable – beyond the immigration scenario in Benno. I won’t plot spoil regarding the narrative but let’s say, we are rooting for him to pass the immigration checks. By the way, “rooting” is Ozzie lingo for “having sex” – with raucous undertones. Do you speak-a my language as the Men in Work lyrics go, but words may mean something totally different in another country. Good On Ya, Ben Vos. I look forward to further instalments of the peregrination of Benno in Australia.
✳ Becoming Benno, written and performed by Ben Vos. Pic: Supplied.
