| What: La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler When: June 20 to July 12, 2025 Where: Baxter Studio, Cape Town Director: Leila Henriques Cast: The Baxter’s resident Fire’s Burning company; Awethu Hleli, Lyle October, Tamzin Daniels, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe and Carlo Daniels, along with Berenice Barbier and Aidan Scott Assistant director and choreography: Crystal Finck Set design: Patrick Curtis Costume design: Wolf Britz Lighting design: Franky Steyn Music curation: Keir Mantzios Bookings: Webtickets |
An inspired and thrilling reimagining of Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde is on stage in Cape Town, in the Baxter Studio from June 20 to July 12, 2025. Fabulous script and delicious production. Loved, loved this intriguing production. I laughed and enjoyed it so much that I went twice. Exhilarating theatre. The terrific cast of seven dance and whip around each other in a game of liaisons, directed by Leila Henriques. Dance and physical theatre is very much key to the magic of this production, with choreography by Crystal Finck who is also the assistant director. It’s zany full of lust, lusty, in the pursuit of pleasure which is central to the narrative.
The pacing and comedic timing by the actors is fabulous: Berenice Barbier as The Prostitute and Young Wife; Lyle October as The Soldier and The Little Them; Aiden Scott as The Student and The Poet, Carlo Daniels as The Husband and Tech King; Nolufefe Ntshuntshe as The Maid; Awethu Hleli as The Actress and Tamzin Daniels as the DJ. With the exception of Barbier and Scott, the actors are part of the Baxter’s resident Fire’s Burning Company. The synthesis of acting and dance is a revelation in its choreography and execution. But, no is not a dance-drama. The dance and movement reverberates on many levels – how the characters connect – beyond physical boundaries – skin to skin – the urgency and heat of touch to touch – transcending language and what is said or not said. The dance becomes a character – characters – in its own right.
The play was written in 1897 in Vienna and was set in that milieu, tracking 10 sexual trysts between 10 characters from different sectors of society. In the wondrous production at the Baxter, the setting is contemporary Cape Town. The action is seen through the lens of a DJ in a club, spinning discs to set each scene. The DJ is the extra character in this emanation of the play. The pregnant DJ (Tamzin Daniels – who is pregnant in real life) is an omniscient presence, leering at the characters, swooning, preening and fanning herself from the heat generated by the couplings that she is presiding over. She guzzles popcorn and nibbles and interacts from time with the protagonists –passing props for example – such as a fan.
As noted in the media release and elsewhere, La Ronde is French for “the round” and invokes “a dance performed in circle formation”. It also means “from one person to another”. And yeah, it was a nifty metaphor for Schnitzler to use as a device. In the play, there is a love-tag – a game: The Soldier (Lyle October) in the first scene is seduced by The Prostitute ((Berenice Barbier). In the following scene, he seduces the Maid (Nolufefe Ntshuntshe). Eventually the narrative circles back to the character it started with – the Prostitute – and the Tech King (originally the Count- Carlo Daniels).
Schnitzler was exploring the transactionality of relationships; how humans try and connect through sex; that sex is currency, intimacy and what-what. The sexual content of Schnitzler’s oeuvre was seen as hectic and his work was banned. Audiences at the turn of the century tended to be scandalised by the casualness of the encounters in La Ronde. But that was then and this is 2025. Today, we are not scandalised or shocked, which is perhaps why some recent stagings abroad have underwhelmed many critics who have been nonplussed by the love-chain and regarded it as a gimmick.
In this staging, South Africa 2025, by positioning Schnitzler’s narrative in a contemporary zeitgeist of Cape Town, the play feels fresh, as if it had been written now. The action shifts between club with DJ to private rooms. The protagonists are tagged with fluorescent green wrist bands. In the club, they are all the same, with class, gender, status blurring under the cover of dark and the thump and bump of bodies and music. In the private rooms, accents signify a great deal regarding demographics. The love-tag makes sense within the milieu of the public club and private rooms. Schnitzler’s core dialogue has been retained but elements have been cut. Some character names have been tweaked and the text has been spiced up with piquant Saffa-isms. The directors and cast workshopped the text – dialogue and some aspects of the characters. Little Miss from the original shifts to the gender binary, The Little Them, is played by Lyle October who also plays The Soldier. Two very different characters and October is brilliant in both.
The entire cast is brilliant in shaping Schnitzler’s archetypes into fully fleshed people who are so South African in the way that they talk – not only accent. For instance, it is a very Cape Town thing, for someone to proclaim, “I am at home” when asked what they do workwise. In Schnitzler’s original text, this is exactly what the character says to The Husband. With the shifting to a gender binary character, it takes on fascinating layers and is very funny when The Little Them talks about living with Mother – which is in Schnitzler’s text. Another great Saffa-ism which is hilarious is the interchange between the Young Wife and Husband about rugby. Schnitzler’s original text had them talking about Stendhal, the early 19th century French writer. Rugby definitely hits the funny and relatable spot in 2025 in South Africa. We love our rugby. Barbier as the Young Wife is a scream. Her accent!
What I love about this production is the space for Schnitzer’s text to sound out, delight and intrigue. It goes beyond the hook-up. It goes deep into what drives individuals in their pursuit of pleasure (not necessarily love), the constraints and perceptions of society and the patriarchal hold over women and others who are expendable – such as Little Them who is used by The Husband (Carlo Daniels) as a play-thing. The Husband starts off charming but ends up menacing and terrifying and I won’t plot spoil what he does but it is all in the original text. Things have not changed.
The hook-ups are intense and transitory but within that, there is a heady dialogue around, gender, morality, the need for women to get married and have children to make them “complete”, love, pleasure and – what makes us alive. Terrific writing by Schnitzler. For instance, The Student (originally The Young Gentleman) says to The Young Wife: “Life is so empty, so trivial. And so short. Isn’t life frightfully short, Emma? There is only one happiness: to find someone who loves you.” Yes and in this world of uncertainty and anxiety, we can all relate to that, as we shriek with laughter as Aiden Scott as the privileged student, sends up that line. Funny, sardonic as he delivers that line with a withering dulcet intonation but true. Scott’s accent as the Stellies student is a cracker,
Set design by Patrick Curtis with the thrust stage frames the action seamlessly as the protagonists play love tag from scene to scene, traversing levels on the stage. May I just say how finessed the prop changes are by the cast, with for example The Maid slugging the remains of the wine as she clears the stage. Kudos to director Henriques and assistant director in activating the fringes of the story at all times. The wacky costumes by Wolf Britz veil and unveil the characters. Once one’s clothes are shed; it is flesh on flesh. Watch the Young Wife’s outfit for her affair. Lighting by Franky Steyn illuminates the protags in the conjugal glow of pleasure. Each scene is announced by a spinning wheel with movie style titles which makes it easy to follow each encounter and is enhanced by the popcorn guzzling DJ. It is like she is a movie-club house, in her own bubble, earphones on and so are we, the audience, sitting on three sides, immersed in the play, in our bubble, at the theatre. Do not miss. Go see it and then read the play like I did and go see it again.
❇ Featured image: Awethu Hleli, Carlo Daniels, Berenice Barbier, Lyle October, Nolufefe Ntshuntshe, Aiden Scott, Tamzin Williams. in La Ronde by Arthur Schnitzler, directed by Leila Henriques, Baxter, Cape Town, June 20 to July 12, 2025. Images by Mark Dobson. Supplied.
