What: Old White Man – A mediation on growing old When: January 20 and 21, 2025 Where: Theatre Arts, Methodist Church Hall, cnr Milton Road and Wesley Street, Observatory Cape Town Writer/performer: John Cartwright Director: Jaqueline Dommisse Violin: Daniel Zachariah Franks Lighting design: Frans Mandilakhe Zunguze Bookings: www.theatrearts.co.za |
I was privileged to attend the opening performance of Old White Man, written and performed by John Cartwright Theatre Arts, last night, January 20, 2025 at Theatre Arts, Cape Town. One more show tonight, January 21. The show last night was sold out but Caroline Calburn and team squeezed in an extra row of chairs. They are doing the same tonight (January 21). It be may ‘sold out’ on website. Go along and try your luck and be treated to an extraordinary piece of theatre, exquisitely performed, with delicate direction by Jaqueline Dommisse.
John is 87! Old White Man is a poignant, introspective and wistful mediation on aging. The piece features excerpts from a selection of John’s unpublished poems. The poems are in a programme which is for sale (R30) at the theatre. The programme sold out last night.
Daniel Zachariah Franks is on stage, with his violin, improvising as he cues in melody to movement. Lighting is by Frans Mandilakhe Zunguze.
Old White Man is structured around three dances and a surprise sequence plus the dialogue/spoken word. Improv is core with much of the performance, music and lighting happening in the moment, live. Every performance will be different as Cartwright might be in a different space, reflected Dommisse when I chatted to her afterwards. Lighting and music shifts accordingly.
I was captivated by the beautifully textured and highly considered narrative arc and structure of this work. Dommisse: “The first dance is the doddery old man, balancing; the cliché of the old man. That evolves into play. The second dance is about planetary grief – what is happening to our world- what we are doing [to the planet]. And the huge expanse of that John talks about how we have unloved the earth. And then into personal grief – about the loss of his mother – his son going through cancer. The last dance is looking at mortality and death.” And then there is the surprise sequence.
The surprise is a delicious piece of theatre. I can only say that I wish that when I am 87 (if I make it), that I will be able to do what Cartwright does at 87. His energy is one thing. Of course it is inspirational that a man of 87 can move like he does. We marvel at his resilience and zest for life. But this is not just about an 87 old getting on to the stage and showing up. The piece is imbued with exquisitely beautiful articulated dance and physical movement/expression as the Old White Man shares his story. It starts with him shuffling up to the podium to read his poems. To find out what happens, go and see it.
The lighting (Frans Mandilakhe Zunguze) follows Cartwright, through the space. The lighting is created in real time, in response to the movement and music. Daniel Zachariah Franks creates sound in the moment, looping and recording sound and music as he tracks the Old White Man. In one dance he uses a paseo – “a Latin groove”. I thought it was a tango.
In Old White Man, Cartwright says that through writing, he can “witness and honour” the aging process that he is going through. For me Old White Man reverberates profoundly in terms of the power of art – to harness – to frame lived experience in a theatrical setting and provide us with the opportunity to be present in representations/impressions of that experience. Live performance heightens the poems/words on a page. The leitmotif of the piece is being present at all times to the process of aging and the challenges. He says: “Aging is performance”. He muses that he has practiced falling and getting up. Spoken word and dance are cantilevered on each other, like two bodies. This is not a lecture by an old man on aging. He may fool us at the start. Be ready for your stereotypes to be dashed and stripped away. It is an absolute joy to witness Cartwright ‘performing’ aging. This is theatre which has been conceptualised and calibrated. I loved the humour and the playfullness.
At the Q&A last night, January 21, Cartwright was asked why he has used the title, Old White Man as he doesn’t tackle this in the dialogue. He said that he is declaring his position in South Africa as white man of privilege because that is the reality. The title speaks for itself.
Masterful direction by Dommisse, containing so much “stuff” and themes which John mulls on – personal aging, the world, climate change. The activation of the spaces in the theatre is breathtaking as Cartwright slithers across the stage space, light and shadow, revealing and concealing.
Bravo to the ageless John Cartwright for his beautiful poetry, vivid images, dance, movement. As I say Old White Man goes beyond an 87 year showing up to do a show in the theatre. That warrants applause, of course. Old White Man stands as visceral and robust piece of theatre, in its own right. I hope that Old White Man will be presented again.

❇ John Cartwright has written and performs in Old White Man, which is on in Cape Town at Theatre Arts, January 20 and 21, 2025. Pic supplied.