Play launches South Africa festival

Shaun Arnolds as Koffie in Suip!

A six-week UK celebration of the best of South African culture launched on Wednesday with a play about the problems that face the country.

The play, Suip!, at the Tricycle Theatre in north west London, is a dark comedy which explores the role of alcohol in South Africa's history.

Cheryl Carolus launched the festival with The Corrs

Suip! - an Afrikaans word meaning to drink to excess - was personally selected for the festival by South Africa's high commissioner to Britain, Cheryl Carolus.

As a play that comes garlanded with South Africa's prestigious Flur du Cap awards, Suip! is certainly a testament to the talent in that country.

Alcoholic Passion

But it is also an unflinching exposé of the unpleasant realities of that country since its first democratic elections in 1994.

"We use comedy to lure people in and then bash them over the head with reality," the director and co-writer Heinrich Reisenhofer told BBC News Online.

"We wanted to look at what happens when a country goes through changes and how people deal with the damage.

"Alcoholism is just a good metaphor as it is carried on from generation to generation and alcohol just gets into the bloodstream."

Suip! tells the stories of four Bergies - a word used to refer to Cape Town's homeless people of colour - who explain their very individual alcoholic passions.

Theatre in South Africa was always seen as a white thing - what we're doing is a small cog in a chain that will hopefully make theatre for new audiences

Heinrich Reisenhofer

"These characters are based on real people," says Reisenhofer.

"There's a family that live on my street corner and I used to talk to them and they would thank you just for hearing their story.

Violence

"It's dark but if you can confront a problem at its worst you can move it on."

The play has been a huge success in South Africa - sell-out audiences seemed willing to take the political message and the violence of the work.

It is also a unique piece of theatre in that plays featuring Cape coloured performers and writers are relatively new.

This is particularly interesting given that this week one South African province recommended removing some Shakespeare and Nadine Gordimer works from schools on the grounds that they are racist and sexist.

"I'm not saying that was a good idea," says Reisenhofer.

If you think the message is negative - then do something about it

Heinrich Reisenhofer

"But you have to remember that theatre in South Africa was always seen as a white thing.

"What we're doing is a small cog in a chain that will hopefully make theatre for new audiences."

They have toned down both the violence and the language for this outing abroad. But the play still features sequences in Afrikaans.

Though funny and very human, the message of Suip! is deeply pessimistic.

But Reisenhofer says that Suip! represents a snapshot in time and that things are a bit better in the new South Africa.

He says the police are certainly more supportive than when they put the play together.

He also points to the complete public outrage when a homeless person was shot recently in Cape Town - something that would, he says, have gone unreported a few years ago.

Ultimately Reisenhofer is unrepentant about the politics in Suip!

"If you think the message is negative, then go do something about it" he said.

Suip! is at the Tricycle Theatre, north west London, until 12 May.

Celebrate South Africa runs until 31 May and culminates in a gala concert with The Corrs and REM in Trafalgar Square.