| What: Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress When: May 14 to June 1, 2024, at 7.30pm and Saturday matinees at 2pm Where: Baxter Flipside, Cape Town Cast: Thembi Mtshali-Jones, Antony Coleman, Royston Stoffels, Nicky Rebelo, Adrian Collins, Daniel Newton and Alyssa van Reenen and ensemble – members of the Baxter’s Fires Burning company -Lyle October, Awethu Hleli and Tamzin Williams Director: Mdu Kweyama Assistant director: Nolufefe Ntshuntshe (also a member of the Baxter’s Fires Burning company) Design: Leopold Senekal Costumes: Leigh Bishop Lighting: Franky Steyn Music supervisor: Sibusiso Victor Masondo Bookings: Webtickets or at Pick n’ Pay stores |
I was at the Baxter in Cape Town for the opening of Trouble in Mind, the classic drama by American writer, Alice Childress (it debuted Off-Broadway in 1955.). The production on opening night at the Baxter, received a rapturous standing ovation. It is an exceptional play – with a meaty text- layered and knotted with intersections into bigotry, sexism, duplicity, conflicts across generations, youth, ageism and more. Directed by Mdu Kweyama with verve, this production is a wonderful opportunity for audiences to become engrossed in this riveting play with a spectacular cast. The cast is led by star of stage, theatre and film, song and musical theatre, Thembi Mtshali-Jones.
It is a beautiful play and an impressive production (loved the set design by Leopold Senekal and costumes by Leigh Bishop) but there were some technical glitches at the opening night performance. The opening night performance was delayed for almost a week, because of illness in the cast. With a large cast of 10 – the logistics- must have been challenging to stage this play. I was hoping to get back to see this production again, to see it in its full glory with glitches ironed out. That was not to be so here I am in the final week of the run (ends June 1, 2024) and I want to urge people not miss this wonderful and seminal play. I was engrossed by the production and the fine ensemble cast. Technical glitches aside and uneven accents by some of the performers, I must state that I love, love, love this play and was riveted by the production. It is over two hours long. There is an interval. I wasn’t aware of the length and my attention did not lapse for a moment.
In Trouble in Mind, we are faced America in the 1950s as Wiletta (Mtshali-Jones) a veteran actress who has put in her time on the boards, is cast in a Broadway production. As rehearsals progress, there is trouble in her mind, which she cannot keep muted as she speaks up. She is conflicted by the need to do her job and focus on her art but as we see things become fractured and ruptured in the rehearsal space, egged on by the white director and his innuendoes. The chit-chat amongst the cast dovetails with what is ignited by the text of the play, setting up a vibrant meta-text. Each person brings baggage, expectations to the production and this heightens the irony and humour in the text. At opening night, there was some unevenness but with elements of improv, I enjoyed the players feeding off each other.
The attention by director Mdu Kweyama on each of the ten performers is evidenced. Turn your gaze on one or the other and watch how each person is engaged at every moment, even when not in the spotlight. There are delicious interactions between the protagonists – domination by the older folk strutting their experiences; younger folk full of expectations and wanting to please and perform and so on. I love the expansive design using the triple volume of the Flipside Space. It starts off as an opulent space and then is stripped back to the bare boards and industrial lights of the rehearsal space, backstage- the flipside of a theatre- the back stage. I love the use of the 1950s lighting dishes dangling into the space and the glare of the lights. There is no revealing and concealing through the glimmer of lights. Each protagonist is in sharp focus at all times and not softened or shrouded in dark.
Seeing Mtshali-Jones on stage again is a joy. She inhabits the regal, complex, Wileta with a presence which goes beyond the role and riffs for me off her own story – her journey in theatre and musical theatre- from domestic worker to star in West End and Broadway musical theatre tours. See interview: https://thecaperobyn.co.za/interview-thembi-mtshali-jones-talks-about-mother-to-mother-stage-production/ Watching Trouble in Mind, it is as if we are watching a reel of her life and although this play is set in America in the 1950s, it reverberates with the struggles of creatives like Mtshali-Jones in Apartheid South Africa and contemporary times, as creatives continue to battle racism, sexism, chauvinism, bigotry and multiple levels of intolerance.
✳ Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, at the Baxter Flipside, directed by Mdu Kweyama, May 14 to June 1, 2024. Pics by Fiona MacPherson. Supplied.
