A comical medieval play dabbling in religious and political commentary is on the menu from the Buckland duo at the Best of Fest fi nale this weekend.
A comical medieval play dabbling in religious and political commentary is on the menu from the Buckland duo at the Best of Fest fi nale this weekend.
Andrew Buckland, who usually writes his own shows,will feature in Mistero Buffo. “For an actor, it’s cream pie, it’s heaven,” he says about performing in the controversial satire created by Nobel prize-winning Italian satirist Dario Fo.
Mistero Buffo did not feature in the National Arts Festival, and is a special, one-hour-long treat for audiences at the Rhodes Main Theatre on Saturday 24 July at 7pm.
The performance of the one-man clown show is enhanced by director Janet Buckland’s “incredibly sharp theatrical eye and ear,” according to Buckland, who explicitly trusts the judgement of his working partner and wife of 35 years.
Meaning “comic mystery”, Mistero Buffo is a series of 20 stories, of which Buckland selected three to adapt and combine the spirit of Fo’s political and religious satire and a good dose of South African gees.
The storytelling is accessible to the audience through its universality, but might touch a raw nerve among audience members with religious affi liations.
“I haven’t got a particular thing against the church or religion,” says Buckland about why he was drawn to a theme of subversive theology.
But, he says, he is against any form of abusive power, be it in the form of insurance companies, pop culture or sport.
He feels free to satirise any power holders, like organised religion, that keeps people from the truth rather than allowing them to fi nd it out for themselves.
Buckland believes a couple of giggles are unavoidable even if the performance might ruffl e some feathers.
“If you get someone cross and they leave, you’ve touched something,” he says.
The appeal of the performance, he adds, lies in its relevance to people’s lives when they step out of the theatre.
“And the dynamic of walking out of my house and there’s a family feeding themselves from my rubbish. What am I going to do about it… what action does it provoke? Admit there’s a problem and not talk about it, do something about it. That’s my hope for all theatre.”
Mistero Buffo was performed in Cape Town earlier this year and will feature at the Hilton Arts Festival in Howick in September.
