Review: Candice Bernstein’s Earthside, tender, poignant funny

I saw Earthside, the solo play, written and performed by Candice Bernstein, at its opening on March 27, 2025 at Theatre Arts. The theatre was packed. The show was on for only three nights, with people clamouring to see it again. Good news is that the run has been extended at Theatre Arts. The season runs April 14-17.

I loved this very moving play – a beautiful homage to family and particularly to Bernstein’s beloved Gampy (grandfather). It is tender poignant and laugh-out-loud funny with Bernstein beguiling the audience. The writing is excellent – wry and funny and evokes a yummy portrait of Jewish Cape Town (such as Giovannis, need I say more) and The Tuna Lasagne [my italics – it need italics], which is part of the Jewish South African Recipe Book (like a Songbook, but with recipes). Fabulous comic timing. Bernstein had us in stitches over mommy WhatsApp support groups and moved many to tears as she spoke about death, dying, loss.

This is beautiful storytelling solo performance – intimate and often raw. Director, the Fleur du Cap award winning. Jennifer Steyn taps into Bernstein’s vitality and keeps her moving around a couch as she performs her story. For me, the couch pings off the image of a therapist’s couch, There is sense of confession as Bernstein excavates her story with stuff that would not be said in everyday conversation. For example, Bernstein brings in the fact that her mother lives in America and she, Bernstein has become her mom’s proxy in looking after her maternal grandparents and taking up the slack from her mom’s “neglect because she lives in another country. Bernstein has become the Sandwich Generation and she obviously cherishes what it has brought her but her role as caregiver has not been easy as she has had to juggle the responsibilities of motherhood and work and her career which she had to re-establish after living abroad.

Bernstein lived in America and studied in the USA at William H Macy and David Mamet’s Atlantic Theatre Company’s Acting Conservatory. She returned to South Africa in 2015 and established Sarafina Magazine, an online publication celebrating South African women in the arts (2016-2021).

Circling back to the couch prop/image, they say that laughter is better than therapy and Bernstein uses comedy as a foil in Earthside, embracing the joy of motherhood and dealing with the deaths in the family – including her Gampy (grandfather) – and navigating terminal illness – and the anticipatory grief which shadows illness (tuna lasagnes help). Bernstein was pregnant she did not get to attend most of the funerals (it is a Jewish Halacha/Law thing). The humour in Earthside, I would say falls into what is described in Yiddish, as a Bittere Gelegte – A bitter joke.

Bernstein’s needed lashings of humour to tackle everything that came her way from 2020-2024. There was Covid and lockdown which brought on loneliness and isolation and family illness and deaths, including her father who she hadn’t seen in 15 years. There was also a great love story – in 2020 – and this is vividly conveyed in Earthside- by Bernstein- How She Met her Husband. It is a great story.

Death is one of the leitmotifs of the play (everything all at once) but earth is what grounds us, here and now. When death calls, it calls and how we deal with it, well that is the take home from this inspirational play. In tandem with the heartbreak and grief, Earthside is a coming of age mom-to-be story, with a delicious deep dive into contemporary mating (not on a dating app), pregnancy, nuptials, motherhood, career. I am being cryptic as I don’t want to plot spoil.

Earthside was conceived during Spark in The Dark’s Solo writing workshop, facilitated by Sophie Joans. I last saw Bernstein perform, pre pandemic (just before lockdown, February 2020 in the Vagina Monologues, staged by Marlisa Doubell for Sugardaddy.

The play has been gestating since winter 2024. Bernstein: “I had the idea for the play in May/June last year and then did Sophie’s course in September. The course culminated in Solo Fest in December where I debuted the first 10 minutes of the show. On the last day of Sophie’s course, I felt very optimistic about the work and inquired with Caroline [Calburn at Theatre Arts}] about dates for March 2025 (to coincide with the on year anniversary of my Gampy’s passing). It was also then when I asked my long-time mentor Jennifer [Steyn] to direct and I am so grateful that she agreed.”

It is wonderful to see this dynamic performer back on stage and a joy to see her perform her own writing – beautifully crafted with a strong narrative through line. I hope to see the play taken further and staged again.

✳ Candice Bernstein – writer/performer – Earthside. Photo: Jesse Kramer. Supplied.