| What: To Life, With Love by Mike van Graan Featuring: John Maytham Director: Josh Lindberg When: August 12-30, 2025 Where: Societas Theatre, Cape Town,in the hall of the NGK Church, 55 Kloof Street, Gardens Bookings: Quicket. Age restriction: No under 13s For more information or to use the show for fundraising or educational purposes, contact Mike van Graan at 0829003349 or email art27m@iafrica.com. Also see https://mikevangraan.co.za |
๐๐ผ๐ต๐ป ๐๐๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฆ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ง๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ, ๐ช๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐ผ๐๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐ ๐ ๐ถ๐ธ๐ฒ ๐๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ป, ๐๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ผ๐๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฑ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ด is on at Societas Theatre, a pop-up theatre in the hall of the NGK Church, 55 Kloof Street, Gardens. August 12-30, 2025.
Can we talk about illness, end of life plans/wishes – and life? Mike van Graan navigates uncomfortable territory with care and insight through his protagonist Thomas Faulkner. Thomas deals with his own mortality, serenaded by the Melancholy Sisters: Loneliness, Emptiness and Sadness. Love that.
I saw the play in February [2025] and was very moved and seeing it again, now, August 2025, the narrative has deepened. The venue – a church hall – heightens the sense of the play being an offering – the invitation to somehow – transcend the noise and fury of the Melancholy Sisters: Loneliness, Emptiness and Sadness – and aging.
End of life โฆ. Well, when you are in it and there is a plea to die? โHow easy it is to wear your trite beliefs when you are not the one in painโ, asks Thomas. Yeah. Exactly. The loneliness of illness is utterly debilitating – for the person who is ill and caregivers/loved ones. And then how does one deal with oneโs own dread in facing up to oneโs own story?
John Maytham pours himself into Thomas as he presents his living testament- an affirmation of resilience and hope. This is not John Maythamโs story. Thomas is a fictional character but it feels โrealโ, a โtrueโ story. Truth and reality are conjured up through the alchemy of theatre.
In my first review of this play, in February, I wrote that Thomas prowls across the stage. That still holds but in this run of the play, the chairs transcend props and become potent markers of absence and presence of loved ones – memories and shared experiences -well, that is my interpretation. The chairs vividly evoke the spectre of dementia- with a person being there physically-but not there. Josh Lindbergโs direction has extended the emotional thrust of the text โ elevating it beyond issue play.
Van Graan deftly weaves into the text, realities of the economics of long haul illness. Having access to medical aid and care is another story. The bequest of Apartheid lingers. Sure not all whiteys are well off but undoubtedly generational privilege holds considerable sway in our unequal society. The financial cost of long term illness and aging is staggering and Maytham as Thomas โ conveys that palpably – flummoxed โ stunned โ grief stricken. The terror of diagnosis, the unknowing of what you now know -was present in the first production – and has now been heightened. Beyond โdealingโ with dementia, scary cancer diagnoses and the call-out to be attuned to end-of-life wishes, ๐ง๐ผ ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ฒ, ๐ช๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐ผ๐๐ฒ is a love story – to love – to cherish life – while we can.
โณ John Maytham in To Life, With Love by Mike van Graan. Photo: Bronwyn Lloyd. Supplied.
