Review: Faustus in Africa! theatrical magic, a triumph

William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company’s Faustus in Africa! is on in Cape Town, in the Baxter  Flipside, until March 22, 2025. This extraordinary production is a reworking of the production of the same name which was first staged in 1995. I did not see the 1995 production so I can’t compare.  Three decades after it was first staged, this version, Faustus in Africa 2025 pings loudly in this ruptured world of ours with Faustian deals being blithely brokered. It is a deeply unsettling play; triggering and disrupting but in a way which invites access, reflection and engagement.

The Faustian construct see an academic/scientist succumbing to greed and complicity as he makes a deal with the Devil and goes on a joy-ride of a safari to Africa. William Kentridge’s animated drawings screened by back-projected animation are beautiful and disturbing. The filmic interplay between puppets and drawings is like walking into a dream/nightmare.  A vivid archive of Colonial Africa is conjured up through Kentridge’s drawings: Everything everywhere all at once – in a bad way but theatrically brilliant. Time as imaged by the ticking /spinning clock, heightens the immutability of the continent; of the world.

Mozambique is the setting for Faustus in Africa! When doing research for the original production, Kentridge went on a research trip to Mozambique with Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of Handspring and they stayed in rooms of the “newly re-opened Polana Hotel in Maputo.” [From Handspring Puppet Company, the book, 2009, edited by Jane Taylor, David Krut Publishing]. The faded glory of what was once known as the Havana of Africa is imaged vividly in Faustus but watching in 2025, it feels that we are watching ourselves – the palimpsest of the past seeping into the present. 

The seamless integration with the puppets/performers is breathtaking. The cast/puppeteers – are immersed in each other, wrapped in each other (I am anthropomorphising here). They move as one body. It is theatrically magical. The entire cast is a knockout: Atandwa Kani, Jennifer Steyn, Wessel Pretorius, Eben Genis, Mongi Mthombeni, Asanda Rilityana and Buhle Stefane.  And of course the puppets are protagonists in their own right.

I loved all the puppets but the Hyena is the scene stealer. As noted in the Handspring book, the Hyena is the “clown of the piece”. Jennifer Steyn and Buhle Stephane ignite Hyena in the 2025 production. The duplicitous smiling puppet (Handspring made Hyena smile) cannot turn on the spot because of its construction. The puppet and has “to enter and exit in the same direction, from stage left to right.”  [From Handspring Puppet Company, the book]. The puppet is physically constrained but is laughing and mocking as Faust goes on his peregrination through Africa. We are voyeurs, lured by the safari, lapping it all up, for our edification and entertainment. Quite a bit of in-your-face Heart of Darkness. Chillingly disturbing.

The above about Hyena gives an idea of the layers, symbolism, metaphors, workings of puppets in Faustus in Africa. I felt like I was in a trance, watching. Faustus in Africa! 2025 is a triumph. Congratulations to William Kentridge, Handspring Puppet Company, Lara Foot, the Baxter and producers for this mesmerising production. Don’t miss – if you can get a ticket.

The 2025 version is produced by Quaternaire/Paris and restaged with support from co-commissioner Théâtre de la Ville/Festival d’Automne (Paris) and co-producers The Baxter (Cape Town), Centre d’art Battat (Montreal), Cité européenne du théâtre – Domaine d’O – Montpellier / PCM2025 (Montpellier), Grec Festival (Barcelona), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Thalia Theater GmbH (Hamburg).

✳ Faustus in Africa! in Baxter Flipside, February 26 to March 22, 2025. Pic by Fiona MacPherson.