12/11/2025
The humiliation and the merriment honor the star of the South African show
The South African presented a highly distinctive theatrical performance, even though the issue is universal, yet both old and new. Universal and particular at once, as he mocks racial discrimination with the utmost expression. He doesn't use the word "character" in the traditional sense, but rather engages in a humanistic outpouring and endless proliferation, sowing hope and fear on the stage, which is nothing more than a wooden sculpture upon which a person might rest, or a window to tomorrow. Perhaps it's the bottleneck for escape, or the opening for entry.
Another world.
The actor explodes, and humanity erupts before us on the stage, through the outpourings of
06 | Issue Four
Kuwait International Monodrama Festival
(2)
Kuwait International Monodrama Festival
A dog and stifled moans. The voice is imprisoned. Inaudibly, yet simultaneously relentlessly, it pricks at the lost human consciousness amidst the animalistic transformation. A human conflict rages, and the hollow, empty figure falls into the abyss of language, lost in a state of bewilderment between man and dog. The depicted figures don't suffer so much as they are a breeding ground for human anguish, offering symptoms and emotions never before witnessed, displaying, in their trembling, empty hands, things never before seen.
Pure in Space
The figure is open before us, presented as a dog with prominent features. The actor performs with an open body, the space saturated with sounds: loud barking, powerless howls, and the moans of a persistent wound. Thus, meanings unfold one after another. Things can only be understood by making them scream into oblivion, as if the scream has transformed into a language, or perhaps into a false path to salvation. Sounds clarify meanings; this is a highly tangible yet also enigmatic phenomenon. It is observed in theater when echoes converge with rational thought, through the purity, power, and diversity of language, and the reflection of its phenomena in performance. The actor was
the point from which the entire universe could be viewed.
The narrative begins with the decline of the human vocal structure and the rise of the dog's pace and its dominance over the space. This parallels the state of human domination and control over other humans. However, the central question of the performance is: Is there a path back to humanity, or has this animalistic state become the end?
Space Drama
The performance presented a new play through the drama of space, devoid of anything but the actor, who filled the space with fluidity and grace, moving in and out, even from human to dog. This is a state of being, taking place here and now. Language here is a vocal line emanating from one of the human orifices, even if the language comes from an animal's mouth. It is as if we are witnessing a crossing from one place to another, from a human species to an animal one. We are witnessing a revelatory state, an acquisition of a new characteristicβnot something added, but rather a crossing of the barrier and a transformation. Theater is born of anxiety, possessing the power to transform the world, to change it, and to transform everything it encounters.
The actor exerted great effort to bring us a new perspective. It is the dog's text, parallel to the play's text, where the actor brings forth from the depths of the theater.
